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Eyes fixed on electoral gains, Raman keeps watch on food security plan

AS BILLBOARDS across Chhattisgarh hardsell the state government's Rs 771-crore food security scheme envisaging distribution of rice at Rs 3 per kg to 34 lakh poor households, CM Ram Singh has embarked on an equally ambitious mission: Monitoring its execution right down to the level of the PDS outlet. It's a tech-savvy monitoring plan, involving not only SMS and internet alerts on availability and supply positions to the beneficiary families and panchayat members of the targeted villages, but also retro-fitting of rice-transporting trucks with GPS devices to track their journey from the godowns to the PDS outlets. Thrown in are a toll-free number