New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS): A total of 2,65,640 raids on fair price shops have been conducted and a total number of 42,274 persons were arrested or prosecuted between January 2015 to June 2022, the Parliament was told on Friday.

Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question that the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under NFSA, 2013 is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and the state/Union Territory (UT) governments.

She said that as and when complaints, including complaints regarding corruption, are received in her Department from any source, they are sent to the state/UT government concerned for inquiry and appropriate action. "5,798 complaints/grievances have been sent to states/UTs from January, 2019 to June, 2022," she said.

"From January 2015 to June, 2022, a total number of 265,640 raids were conducted and a total number of 42,274 persons were arrested/prosecuted/convicted and 86,715 fair price shop licenses suspended/cancelled/show cause notices issued/FIR lodged," the reply added.

The minister said that as per the National Food Security Act, 2013, it is the duty of the states/UTs to take delivery of foodgrains from the designated depots of the Central government in the states/UTs, organise intra-state allocations for delivery of the allocated foodgrains through their authorised agencies at the door-step of each fair price shop, and ensure actual delivery of supply of the foodgrains to the entitled persons.

Under the NFSA, this Department allocates foodgrains to states/UTs for distribution to around 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries in the country on a monthly basis. Further, due to Aadhaar seeding and installation of ePoS devices at the FPSs, at present, more than 90 per cent of transactions in the country are done through biometric authentication on a monthly basis, bringing transparency in the system, said the reply.