Claim over ration card database puts two departments at odds

Revenue Dept. fears the e-governance Dept. will take credit for its e-kshana database

RCR-01 A specimen of photo identity ration card

The Revenue Department, over five years, created the e-kshana ration card database that maps nearly five crore population with their residence, caste and income. This in turn was seeded with Aaadhar details, helping the government in reaching out to genuine beneficiaries. The database was created by the Atal Janasnehi Kendra (AJSK) of the Revenue Department.

However, with the E-governance Department that is rolling out the family ID project seeking the integrated e-kshana ration card database, fears have now been expressed by the revenue officials that the AJSK’s work could be showcased by the E-governance Department as its own.

Munish Moudgil, who headed the project for four years while being the Commissioner of Survey Settlement and Land Records, has recorded his displeasure in a letter to Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar. Mr. Moudgil was transferred last week. “The E-governance Department seeking the entire integrated e-kshana ration card database created by me and showing it as its own work is unfair and amounts to usurpation of my four-year effort. This is gross injustice,” he claimed in the letter, accessed by

The Hindu.

Mr. Moudgil also pointed out that legally only the tahsildar under the Revenue Department could declare/decide family details, and hence, family ID and individual ID issuance had to be done by the Revenue Department. He has also requested the Karnataka government to take note and recognise his work of four years.

In another letter addressed to Additional Chief Secretary Rajeev Chawla, who heads the E-governance Department, Mr. Moudgil said the family ID project will use the same idea of ration card and would stand on already implemented work of e-kshana.

‘Give credit’

“It is in fairness that the same is duly recognised and if at any time the family ID work of the E-governance Department receives recognition or award, they be named as co-creators,” Mr. Moudgil said in the letter. Besides him, he has sought the names of IAS officers S.S. Nakul and Meena Nagraj, KAS officials Gangadhar Swamy and Manjunath Swamy, NIC technical director Jayanthi and Manjunath, programme manager AJSK directorate to have worked on the project and be acknowledged as co-creators.