chandigarh in a bid to improve the public distribution system in haryana the state government is mulling to shift the privatelyowned fair price shops to civic bodies and panchayati raj institutions the proposal has been made with the plan to target nearly 12 lakh bpl card holders and beneficiaries of antyodaya scheme currently haryana has 9226 fair price shops of this 6561 shops are operating in rural belts and 2665 are in urban areas under the pds system the bpl families get kerosene wheat and sugar at subsidized rates haryana proposes to follow the pds system in tamil nadu where panchayats and women selfhelp groups are running the fair price shops a team of officials from department of food and supplies headed by director general mahavir singh had visited tamil nadu in january to study the system the team made its recommendations to the government in march the food and supplies minister mahender pratap singh has forwarded the proposal to the chief ministers office for final approval once the proposal gets the nod the food and supplies department will take further action after involving urban local bodies department and panchayat development department for implementation this is yet another plan targeted to render thousands of shopkeepers and their employees jobless we welcome any initiative taken by government for poor but this is certainly not a viable solution instead of changing the pds system the department should focus on strict monitoring of its employees who supervise fair price shops leader of bjp legislative party anil vij said