Even as the Food and Civil Supplies Department is all set to announce yet another extension of the validity of ration cards for one more year, it is carrying out a field verification of “bogus” cards and collecting data on PDS beneficiaries who do not have Aadhaar numbers.
Expressing hope that the exercise will be completed shortly, a civil supplies department official said the field verification also covered those who might not have provided Aadhaar numbers to the field staff for linking. As children below the age of five years are not covered under the Aadhaar drive, the task of data collection is being undertaken. Those adults who are yet to get the numbers are also being covered. The existing validity of the ration cards expires on December 31.
Once the government clears the design, the proposed smart cards can be printed at a short notice as it is only an “overnight work”, the official said.
The official added that there will be a period of transition during which the cards in the conventional form and the smart cards are likely to be in use concurrently. By end June 2017, the period of transition may be over, after which only the smart cards will be in use.
Out of 7.5 crore PDS beneficiaries, the linking of Aadhaar numbers of the beneficiaries with the data of ration cards has been carried out in respect of about 5.43 crore persons, accounting for about 72 per cent.
It is expected that there would be a fall in the overall number of PDS beneficiaries on completion of the entire exercise, the official said.
