avoiding future food security crises is to make structural changes.

The proposed suggestion seeks to examine the many facets of the operation of Telangana's Public Distribution

System (PDS). The paper includes a comprehensive analysis and survey done in six Telangana districts. The

primary goal of the project is to conduct research on customer reliance on the Public Distribution System before

and during the pandemic. To examine how portability has aided consumers in obtaining rations at Fair Price

stores. Government responses to the food security crises during COVID as well as the migrant labour problem.

To learn what consumers think about the current public distribution system and an alternative system in which

they can get financial transfers from the government via DBT into their accounts in order to buy food. Consumers

perspectives on the present PDS plan have been recorded, and its successful approach to poverty reduction and

social equality inside the individual state has been thoroughly examined. Several studies on PDS were

The current study was confined to the state of Telangana. Telangana is an agricultural friendly state, scientifically

an agrarian state with increasing jobs in service sector mainly due to Hyderabad being an aspirational IT- Hub.

Telangana is self- sufficient in food production. At present it holds seventh position in the all India ranking, thus

provides heavy reserves of food grains to the nation. The study has been done in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy,

Mahbubnagar, Vikarabad, Medchal- Malkajgiri and Nagar Kurnool. As part of study the Telangana region is

being classified as following:

The selected districts has been classified into three categories which are tabulated as follows:

Table No. 2.1 Categorization of selected districts

Mahbubnagar

Nagar Kurnool

Ranga Reddy

Vikarabad

Once districts were selected, district wise fair price shop list was obtained from Department of Food & Civil

As the study is based on the government policies and budgets, the secondary data was required in this concern.

The data was collected from the following sources:

Annual Report of Food and Public Distribution System of Telangana, 2022).

Table No. 3.1 Telangana Profile

Source: Census 2011, Government of India and State portal Government of Telangana.

Telangana lies in the southern part of India covering an area of 1,12,077 Sq. Km bordered by the Chhattisgarh

to the East, Andhra Pradesh towards the South- East, Maharashtra to North- West, and Karnataka to the west

respectively. The statistical data of Census 2011 reported 3,50,03,674 as the total count of Punjab’s population

Food & Civil Supplies, Telangana. The data has been tabulated as follows:

Table No. 3.2 District- wise Fair Price Shops and Beneficiaries

Hyderabad

Medchal- Malkajgiri

Nagar Kurnool

Vikarabad

selected randomly for collection of data. Therefore, the sample size of consumers is 320. The district wise and

Table No. 3.3 District and Card wise contingency table of respondents.

Nagar Kurnool

558

50

194431

Vikarabad

588

50

207106

Source: Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection Department, Telangana.

The FPSs play an important role in the retail distribution of essential commodities under PDS. Thus, access to

the PDS facilities depends on a variety of factors. Fair Price Shop is a medium of making PDS items available

to the ultimate needy consumers. This medium has great relevance in making this system a real success. To study

the views and the opinions of consumers regarding the feasibility of FPS, it is of utmost importance to examine

the effectiveness of PDS.

Table No. 3.4 Delivery Management of PDS

21.5% of respondents expressed that heavy rush at Fair Price Shop as a difficulty. This was seen more in town

facing this problem are from rural area. 13.12% of respondents said they faced technical problem regarding

Table No. 4.2Telangana State FSC Ration Card Status Report during 2020 to 2022

Ranga Reddy

1

4

90

194

Figure: PDS dependency for last five years

The Governments in India, both central, state and local bodies played a crucial role in handling the pandemic

situation. Despite of several hindrances in supply chain mechanism due to lockdown government successfully

implemented PDS. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana served 80 crore population of India ration

for two consecutive years. The migrant labor community were the most effected due to pandemic, the

through PDS to such a large population is commendable. And governments tap their shoulders showing they

supplied food grains to the masses and we distributed new ration cards, notwithstanding with the fact that issuing

of ration card means the family newly came under below poverty line, but the poverty rate in India is also

decreased comparatively. This dichotomy or inverse nature of decrease in poverty and increase in ration cards

which tends to be a sign of poverty is a matter of debate. While in survey conducted, it was found that split of

joint family and new couples getting registered as separate families can be one of the reasons. And the web of

schemes or welfare facilities attached with ration cards is also making people to get ration. The main intention

of these people is not to get ration, but the schemes and welfare facilities. The ration procured by these people

from FPS is sold to breakfast tiffin centers. The distribution of food grains through FPS is a difficult thing and

it need a great management system. Despite the all efforts put in by governments, the consumers still face

Government of Telangana.