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 *Chhattisgarh poor to get food alerts on SMS: The Chhattisgarh government plans to send SMS alerts about availability and supply of food to beneficiaries of the subsidised public distribution system (PDS), although officials are unclear how many of such families actually own mobile phones.

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To get the alerts, the poverty-stricken families will have to register details of their mobile phones at the website of the food and civil supplies department, along with details of their nearest PDS shop.

"With SMS facility to PDS beneficiaries coming into place from this month, Chhattisgarh will become the first state of the country to have such high-tech system," Alok Shukla, secretary of food and civil supplies, told IANS by phone Wednesday.

The government will provide 35 kg of rice in a month to each family at the rate of Rs 3 per kg under the scheme. It plans to distribute the rice in sealed packets of 5 kg, 10 kg and 35 kg.

Department officials said alerts would also be given out through the Internet to beneficiaries of the Rs.8.5-billion Food Security Scheme (FSS) once they register their names, addresses and mobile phone numbers with the local PDS shops.

"Besides the SMS facility, the government will be setting up toll-free call centers across the state from January 26 to take up supply related complaints of PDS beneficiaries immediately and deliver reply to them in time-bound banner on their telephones," Shukla added.

The FSS starts Jan 16 and the SMS facility will be provided from Jan 26, officials said. The FSS is part of the PDS.

The FSS will cover 3.4 million families or about 60 percent of the 20.08 million population of the state.