New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS): Around 40,000 fair price shops (FPS) dealers across the country are providing other services and earning up to Rs 50,000 as additional income, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Thursday.

Addressing a conference on transformation of FPS, Chopra stressed on the need to build on technological interventions to transform ration shops into vibrant platforms offering more products and services apart from running their regular PDS operations.

Department of Food and Public Distribution has written to states to allow ration shop dealers to keep non-PDS items such as FMCG products and many states have allowed them, he said.

He mentioned that the beneficiaries or ration card holders, particularly the migrant population covered under the food security programme, can now uptake food grains from any FPS in the country through Aadhaar authentication.

This system of portability provides ease of access for the beneficiary and over 3.5 crore portability transactions are taking place across the country under the One Nation One Ration Card initiative of the government, Chopra said.

He also highlighted some of the success stories of FPS dealers in Gujarat, informing that many of them are earning up to Rs 50,000 by providing additional community services.