Bhubaneswar, Jan 27: Due to the rampant theft of Public Distribution System (PDS) items, the Odisha government has decided to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in each vehicle carrying these items from the depot. This decision was taken at a review meeting of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department presided over by Principal secretary of the department, Pradipta Mohapatra at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday . On asking about the payment of procurement price to the farmers, he said online payment to the tune of Rs 2600 crore has already been made to the account of the farmers. He also informed that the state government has a target to procure 40 lakh tonne of Kharif paddy of which about 50 percent (20.54 lakh tonne) of Kharif paddy has been procured. He further said there has been an improvement in the volume of milling of paddy. Mohapatra also said a decision has been taken to set up point of sale POS machines in all block headquarters by March this year and throughout the state by June this year.
