UPI Transactions To be Applicable In PDS Outlets Across Tamil Nadu!

I Periswamy, Minister of Cooperation, Tamil Nadu announced enabling UPI transactions in PDS outlets across the state. This move is going to help the shops and the public with easy payment. The cooperative department of Tamil Nadu has around 33,377 outlets across the state and they serve at least 2.02 crore families.

UPI payment systems like Google Pay and Paytm shall be introduced across chosen PDS shops in the state on a pilot basis. This shall be then enabled for the other shops as well. The government is planning to convert at least 10 PDS shops UPI enabled in each district, Minister for Cooperation I Periyasamy, in a statement.

He further elaborated that the state government is working along with the IOC to sell cylinders having 5 kg and 2 kg capacity. The authorities are also trying to store rice, wheat sugar, etc in iron pallets.

In an order released by the state government, it has been mentioned that shops have to now obtain Quality Control Management certificate ISO-9000, security in supply chain and management and storage certificate ISO-28,000, and FSSAI for storing essential food supplies from the competent authorities.

Additionally, in order to make sure that the food grains are stored well, the government will be constructing warehouses having a capacity of 10 to 50 metric tonnes. The survey for the location shall begin soon and preference shall be given to space that is near any PDS shop.

Talking about the workers, the minister said that the government shall also be constructing toilets around the area. This is because the state has a total of 22,273 PDS workers out of which women form a majority.

At present, Tamil Nadu has a total of 33,377 PDS shops operational under the Cooperation department. Out of this, around 6,981 shops are functioning in rental buildings. Hence, the state government has announced to target construction of at least 300 shops every year.