Srinagar, Sep 22: Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Transport, Science and Technology, Information Technology, Youth Services and Sports, and ARI and Trainings Satish Sharma informed the House that the Department of FCS&CA has established a wide network of Fair Price Shops across Jammu and Kashmir.

The Minister was replying to a question raised by Legislator Hasnian Masoodi in the Legislative Assembly.
The Minister informed that the criteria for establishment of Fair Price Shops (FPS) are laid down in S.O. 41 dated 19.01.2023. He said that in Pampore Assembly Constituency, presently, there are no uncovered areas.
Giving the category-wise position of ration cards and beneficiaries in Pampore Constituency, he said there are 2,679 ration cards covering 10,163 souls under AAY, 15,470 ration cards covering 67,157 souls under PHH and 9,776 ration cards covering 40,457 souls under NPHH.
The Minister said that the department is examining the requirement for opening of new Fair Price Shops in the Union Territory along-with rationalization of existing entities with reference to viability, number of ration cards tagged, geographical accessibility and adequate coverage in remote and tribal areas.
In the meantime, the Government of India has launched the umbrella scheme SARTHAK-PDS, subsuming assistance for intra-state movement, handling and FPS dealers' margin and technology reforms under SMART-PDS, the Minister informed.
The Minister said the scheme provides revised norms of Central assistance towards transportation, handling and assured FPS dealer income, which substantially improves the economic viability of Fair Price Shops. Accordingly, proposals for new FPS shall be assessed on the basis of viability under the assured income model, de-congestion of over-tagged shops and compliance with technology parameters viz. ePoS, electronic weighing scale integration and Aadhaar authentication.
The Minister, while replying to a supplementary raised by the Legislator, said that a committee to relax the criteria for areas with scattered population has already been formulated.