Bhubaneswar: A first-of-a-kind grain dispensing machine was inaugurated in Bhubaneswar on Thursday, and it will allow public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries to access their entitlement 24×7, a statement said.
The Annapurti ‘Grain ATM’ was inaugurated by Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra along with Nozomi Hashimoto, the deputy country director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in India.
“This is a significant initiative in partnership with the WFP to achieve nutritional security in the state, which is focused on food security,” Patra said.
The ATMs will be eventually set up across the state to provide food grains to beneficiaries with 24×7 access under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), he said.
Patra said at least one such facility will be set up in each district, then, one in each block of the state.
“Odisha presents a success story with global relevance. We are humbled to see the Annapurti solution, a made-in-India globally awarded solution operational in many states, evolving to add more functionalities and features based on a year-long pilot and testing,” said Hashimoto.
Anyone with a valid PDS ration card, regardless of the state and union territory (UT), can access their entitlement by authenticating their biometric, the statement said.
The machine can dispense grain up to 50 kg in five minutes, with an error rate of 0.01 per cent, it said.
PTI
