New Delhi, July 24 -- The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has recommended strengthening the Public Distribution System (PDS) through phased expansion of coverage under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), faster adoption of SMART-PDS and improved beneficiary verification.

According to a press release, the Committee noted that reforms under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), including digitisation, Aadhaar seeding, Fair Price Shop (FPS) automation and the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme, have significantly improved the system.

However, it said gaps remain in supply-chain computerisation and beneficiary verification, and recommended continued de-duplication to ens...