After district magistrates, it is now the turn of sub-divisional officers (SDOs) to get ready for monthly ranking.

The Bihar Vikas Mission had taken the initiative in case of district magistrates. Now the food and consumer protection department is taking the same initiative for SDOs.

Bihar's 38 districts have been divided into 101 sub-divisions, which are headed by SDOs. These officials work under the overall control of the general administration department but in matters related to public distribution system (PDS), they send their reports to the food and consumer protection department.

A total of 45,219 PDS shops are functional in the state at present. The food and consumer protection department has come up with a system that entails assessing the performance of SDOs on the basis of work done by them in connection with PDS shops.

According to the norms, some of the important work SDOs are supposed to do in connection with the smooth functioning of the PDS include timely allocation of foodgrain for the PDS shops, delivery of foodgrain to the PDS shops, ensuring deposition of money by the PDS dealers in the government accounts against the items supplied to them, disposal of application related to ration cards, redress of complaints in connection with the PDS, random inspection of PDS shops among others to crosscheck whether the shops are delivering the benefits to the people. Also, the SDOs are supposed to keep tabs on the functioning of vigilance committees, consisting of functionaries of local self governments among others, and take action on the basis of the report.

'A detailed format has been designed in which the SDOs are supposed to enter the PDS related work details done by them every month. Points would be awarded to them on the basis of the basis of their achievement against the target and based on the points, their rankings would be done,' a senior official of the food and consumer protection department said and added that the new system would start functioning from September itself.

Explaining the system of awarding points, the official said weightage has been given to different works and the point would be calculated accordingly. 'For example, an SDO is supposed to inspect at least two per cent of the PDS shops under his jurisdiction in a given month. If an SDO achieves the target, he/she would get full point as per the weightage given to that work,' he added.

There is, however, a question mark that how much of the new system would be able to ensure smooth functioning of the PDS.

'The general administration department happens to be the controlling authority of the SDOs and if the department starts taking note of the scores of these officials given by the food and consumer protection department the new system would become very effective,' pointed out a senior government official.

He said a proposal was doing the rounds in the government for including the points of the SDOs in their personal appraisal report, which is written by the district magistrates, but the general administration department had yet not taken a final call on this issue.