A monitoring system has been developed by NIC TNSC for collecting stock details of PDS commodities from Fair Price Shops and godowns from all over the State, through SMS. The Cooperative Department in Tamil Nadu operates around 30,636 Fair Price Shops.  These Shops are run by 4562 cooperative societies. The societies also operate 262 kerosene bunks. The societies lift commodities from 422 godowns of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC), and supply them to Fair Price Shops as per allotment fixed by the Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection Department.  In addition to these, there are also 1466 Fair Price Shops in the state which are operated by the TNCSC. 

Data in the form of SMS is sent daily through mobile phones by the salesmen of Fair Price Shops in pre-defined formats.   The information comprises the day's Closing Stock of each commodity in the shop, as well as Stock Receipts of each commodity. The system facilitates compilation and generation of required MIS reports, providing instant access through a web based system to all the decision making authorities. Formats have also been defined for sending closing stock in godowns, inspection reports, and for reporting the working status of electronic weighing machines and billing machines at the Shops.

The system accepts SMS data only from registered mobile numbers. Salesmen and Godown clerks may send SMS  pertaining to those Shops/godowns alone for which their number is registered. Registration and management of valid mobile numbers of salesmen, godown clerks and inspectors is done by authorized officials at the District and Society levels.

The software has been developed in Open Source Technology, in JSP & Java Servlet on Struts framework, and hosted in  the TN State Data Centre after Security Auditing. The SMS gateway of NIC has been utilised. Implementation of the system requires Fair Price shop salesmen, godown clerks and the Inspecting officials to have mobile phones for transmitting data, and availability of desktop PC system with internet connection with the district level officials of the cooperatives, the societies, and the TNCSC.

This system has been implemented since Feb 2013. Daily data from about 28,500 shops of the Cooperatives and TNCSC is being currently received through the system.  The system has enabled decision makers of the Co-operation, Food & Consumer Protection Department, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies and the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to monitor the critical level stock position of commodities on daily basis in the shops, and ensure timely movement of stock of  PDS commodities, thereby improving service levels at the Fair Price Shops.