A study of the functioning of fair price shops in nagaland with a special reference to kohima, peren and wokha districts

In this paper, the role of Fair Price Shops (FPS) under Public Distribution System (PDS) in improving socio-economic condition and food security of PDS beneficiaries in Nagaland is investigated. The FPSs of all the sampled villages in the three districts of Nagaland state in India are surveyed and information is drawn out with the help of pertinent queries in questionnaire which are posed to FPSs’ owners. During the survey, interaction with FPSs dealers, with the help of questionnaires, covers wide range of issues such as variety of commodities sold, problems encountered in running FPSs, demand and supply mismatch, beneficiaries’ satisfaction to service rendered by FPSs, gap between dealers’ report and beneficiaries’ report on variety and quantity of commodities distributed to beneficiaries, dealers’ perception about the impact of PDS in ensuring food security of nutritionally challenged section and improving socio-economic condition of targeted masses etc. Apart from asking questions from the questionnaire, information on any relevant issue in the functioning of FPSs is unearthed through the field survey. All the collected information is processed, analyzed and interpreted in terms of findings. The functioning of FPSs with regard to its impact on socio-economic condition and food security of the people in the state under the coverage of PDS is approximately evaluated in the paper.