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The government supports what is known as a Publc Distribution System (PDS) for low cost food grains etc. These are available to people who can show that they ha

The government supports what is known as a Publc Distribution System (PDS) for low cost food grains etc. These are available to people who can show that they have a "ration card" which is given to low income families. The problem is that the PDS system is quite dysfunctional and so the rations available is quite low even as food grains rot in the warehouses.

ketanmaheshwari 5y ago
This is largely true today but the PDS was very effective and reliable in the past. My family and a neighbor bought sugar and sometimes grains from our neighborhood ration store and I never heard any complains.
- solarengineer 5y ago
  My experience is between 1994-1998 in various suburbs of Mumbai. I think the sugar was always of decent quality, but the rice, the pulses and the wheat would be of varying qualities. I hadn’t ever experienced any dilution issues with kerosene, though the “blue” shade ( colouring added to mark PDS kerosene) sometimes varied. In certain localities, if you took care of the staff at the distribution centres during Diwali, then they took care of you throughout the year.
mschuster91 5y ago
> The problem is that the PDS system is quite dysfunctional and so the rations available is quite low even as food grains rot in the warehouses. Does that remind only me of Mao's Great Chinese Famine?!
- solarengineer 5y ago
  No, it’s not the same. Grains often languish in warehouses due to inefficient or staff/vehicle shortages or simply due to delays in the paperwork for replenishments. Grains have a lifetime. If they aren’t consumed within a particular time, then they rot due to exposure to humidity or just natural degradation. When one gives the grains for grinding into flour at the local flour mill, one needs to sometimes tell the flour mill attendant to please add one’s grain for grinding only after other good quality grains. Otherwise Good and bad flour gets mixed up.

ketanmaheshwari 5y ago

This is largely true today but the PDS was very effective and reliable in the past. My family and a neighbor bought sugar and sometimes grains from our neighborhood ration store and I never heard any complains.

solarengineer 5y ago
My experience is between 1994-1998 in various suburbs of Mumbai. I think the sugar was always of decent quality, but the rice, the pulses and the wheat would be of varying qualities. I hadn’t ever experienced any dilution issues with kerosene, though the “blue” shade ( colouring added to mark PDS kerosene) sometimes varied. In certain localities, if you took care of the staff at the distribution centres during Diwali, then they took care of you throughout the year.

mschuster91 5y ago

> The problem is that the PDS system is quite dysfunctional and so the rations available is quite low even as food grains rot in the warehouses. Does that remind only me of Mao's Great Chinese Famine?!

solarengineer 5y ago
No, it’s not the same. Grains often languish in warehouses due to inefficient or staff/vehicle shortages or simply due to delays in the paperwork for replenishments. Grains have a lifetime. If they aren’t consumed within a particular time, then they rot due to exposure to humidity or just natural degradation. When one gives the grains for grinding into flour at the local flour mill, one needs to sometimes tell the flour mill attendant to please add one’s grain for grinding only after other good quality grains. Otherwise Good and bad flour gets mixed up.