While citizens are agitated over the Aadhaar-LPG link, the identity card has proved to be a big help for the Chief Rationing Officer’s (CRO) Unit, Hyderabad.
The unit has successfully managed to weed out over 60,000 bogus ration cards in the city with the help of Aadhaar.
A total of 63,723 bogus ration cards have been deactivated since July 2012, while 19,754 genuine cards were issued by the CRO’s office in Hyderabad district.
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And to make sure that no data is lost, all the information has been collected online through the Electronic Point of Service (EPOS) and the Electronic Public Distribution System (EPDS) programmes, two databases created in 2012 to store information of ration card holders.
Both the EPOS and EPDS were started as pilot projects by the CRO’s office with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Officials from the CRO’s office, Hyderabad, said that EPOS and EPDS ensure that one person cannot enrol himself in more than one ration card, as it is easily detected.
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“During the process of streamlining, we received applications from citizens with different issues, and thanks to both the new databases, things are settling down,” mentioned an official on condition of anonymity.
The Aadhaar cards are being used to match information of citizens on ration cards.
“We did not make it compulsory for Aadhaar cards to be shown for identification. However, we advised applicants to bring them as Aadhaar cards are genuine.
People are more than willing since they will benefit by getting proper ration cards,” the official explained.
Although the official refused to indicate the extent of duplicity among the white cards, he said that 70 per cent of the seeding process on ration cards with the information on Aadhaar cards was completed, with another 10 per cent of the work underway. There are 6,73,144 white or below poverty line (BPL) ration card holders and 5,48,851 pink ration card holders in the district.
Pinpointing problems
M. Padma, Chief Rationing Officer, Hyderabad district, said her personnel were able to pinpoint problems people face with ration cards, with the help of EOPS and EPDS. “We were also able to invalidate cards on the names of people who have migrated from the district,” she added.