pune of the 1800 ration shops in the district 979 shops are operating without obtaining the mandatory licence or registration from the food and drugs administration fda said shashikant kekare joint commissioner of fda pune of the total as many as 800 ration shops are in the city whereas the remaining shops are located in the rural parts of pune kekare said ever since the new food safety and standards act 2006 and rules and regulations 2011 came into force from august 2011 about 747 ration shops in pune district have sought registration whereas 74 ration shops have applied for licences from the fda under the new food safety and standards act 2006 food business operators with an annual turnover of rs 12 lakh and above have been directed to apply for licences those with a lesser annual turnover are required to register with the fda we often organize camps for ration shop owners where they can apply for licences or register with the fda easily most of them have sought fair price shop licence efforts are on to motivate others to get themselves registered as soon as possible said jyoti kadam district supply officer of pune as per the conservative estimates there are around 15 lakh food business operators in the state fda grants licences and registrations to big hoteliers small canteens roadside vendors wholesalers retailers stockists and people selling fooditem sellers including groceries as per their turnoverthe act ensures prevention of fraudulent deceptive or unfair trade practices which may mislead or harm the consumer prevention of unsafe contaminated or substandard food being used regulation of manufacture storage distribution sale and import of food items to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumptionpublic distribution system targeted public distribution system tpds is operated under the joint responsibility of the union and stateunion territory ut governments the union government is responsible for procurement allocation and transportation of food grains to the designated depots of the food corporation of india the operational responsibilities for lifting and distributing the allocated food grains within the stateut governments they are also suppose to identify families below poverty line bpl issue ration cards to them and supervise distribution of allocated food grains to eligible cardholders through the fair price shops fps the total number of fair price shops in the country as reported by statesunion territories uts up to 2011 are 505 lakh of the total 50555 ration shops are in maharashtra eomumesh