District administration in Purulia, considered to be among the less-developed districts of Bengal, has drawn up a database of over 300 remote pockets for the smooth implementation of the Duare Ration programme which chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched on Tuesday.

The Purulia administration had already kept ready well-informed lists with maps of hamlets of tribal populations for circulation among ration dealers spread across 20 blocks.

“Purulia is a district having poor populations spread across various critical and remote corners like forests or hills like the Ayodhya. The map is a GIS (geographic-information system) one that will help us know within a month whether any small hamlets have been dropped out of the Duare Ration scheme. We have also stipulated a week for each remote pocket which the dealers have to reach without fail every month,” said Purulia district magistrate Rahul Majumdar.

Officials said all block development officers had been asked to update the database every month and ensure that all hamlets having poorer populations received their food grains in time.

Purulia has 18.1 per cent tribal population spread across 164 villages.

All 300 pockets have reportedly been earmarked with the challenges of those areas, including low income, high population ratios and poor navigability for larger vehicles, being mentioned.

Sources said the database and map were “very important” as most hamlets were located more than 10km away from ration stores and could only be reached on foot, across from forested areas.

“We welcome the Duare ration drive as well as the move taken by the state government to map remote areas because there are many Sabar families who don’t go out to collect rations because of accessibility issues,” said Prashanta Rakshit, director of the Paschim Banga Kheriya Sabar Kalayn Samity, an organisation working for tribal welfare.

“Amjharna is a village in Bandwan block and is a Sabar hamlet. Around 100 Sabar families avoid visiting ration shops because of the distance. Duare Sarkar will be of massive help and it will be very good if the administration keeps vigil to ensure doorstep delivery,” Rakshit added.

Officials said the GIS-based map was formed for “easy monitoring” and “watertight data computation”.

“These hamlets are usually very small and have only 20 families or less. So, there could be a risk of omission. In this database, we have provided the names of the ration dealers concerned and their phone numbers,” said a senior official.

Officials said the move might be beneficial for other remote districts like in Jhargram and Bankura. They said the database would also help ration dealers as they could now communicate with specific pockets where they may be facing supply issues.

“There are many pockets which are difficult to access with a large vehicle. In those instances, we can help dealers arrange smaller vehicles that can crisscross narrower lanes and forests,” said another official.