Newz Desk, Durgapur: The Modi government is emphasizing making the public distribution system more dependent on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Surveillance on ration shop dealers is being increased. The central government provides free food grains to nearly 81 crore citizens of the country. But are customers receiving the correct quantity and proper quality of rice and wheat? Monitoring is being intensified to check exactly that.
How? With the help of artificial intelligence, customers will receive phone calls every month, asking: “Have you received your entitled ration properly?” A special mechanism called ASHA (Anna Sahayata Holistic AI Solution) has been launched for this purpose. It is currently a pilot project. By March 2026, it will be implemented across the entire country.
Using AI, phone calls will be made every month to 20 lakh poor ration beneficiaries. They will be asked whether they received the correct weight of food grains and whether the ration shop charged them any money. This initiative will cost five lakh rupees per month, according to Sanjeev Chopra, the Union Food Secretary.
Vishwambhar Basu, General Secretary of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Federation, commented: “Let the Centre increase surveillance, no problem. But what happens if a customer lies? Besides, the government already receives online reports about when, where, and how much food grain each customer receives, due to the Aadhaar-linked ration card system. So, spending 60 lakh rupees a year for this seems pointless. Is this just a way to indirectly promote the Modi government’s project?” he questioned.
Along with tracking customer rations, the Centre is also launching a cloud-based system called Bhandaran-360, to monitor whether food grains are reaching FCI and Central Warehouses on time and the level of stock available. Through this system, the entire route of food grain movement—from the warehouse to the delivery vehicle—will be tracked via GPS. AI will provide information on when and how much food grain was dispatched and how much is in storage.
However, Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution, Prahlad Joshi, remarked that if ministry officers stop directly checking on the ground and rely entirely on phone-based updates, the “human connection” will be lost. According to him, “Becoming fully dependent on artificial intelligence is not right. Officers must also personally ensure that the poor are actually receiving their ration.”
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