The government of Telangana will issue new ration cards in the name of women and introduce biometric system for supply of commodities through the public distribution system (PDS).
The introduction of biometric system at the point of sale, fair price shops, is expected to curb leakages in the PDS to a large extent, including the bogus card menace. Biometric system is being implemented for the disbursement of MGNREGS wages in case of payments made through post-offices.
The Civil Supplies Department has already launched the exercise for seeding the existing household supply cards with the Aadhaar numbers and it is likely to be completed by the month-end, as part of issuance of new ration cards. Later, the data about cards seeded with Aadhaar numbers and others would be displayed in villages, seeking claims and objections from people, before the preparation of rolls of households in need of ration cards.
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“Since the enrolment of Aadhaar ranges between 60 and 65 per cent, the seeding of existing ration cards with them will prove nearly a similar percentage of cards as genuine. Along with replacement of cards to genuine cardholders, new ration cards will be issued by setting up Aadhaar enrolment centres,” a top official of the Civil Supplies Department told
It is understood that the department has also been receiving suggestions to do away with pink ration cards since no subsidised commodities are being supplied to them for many years now. “There’s no point in issuing pink cards since they are being utilised as proof of address. The ration cards are not required for such purposes now as Aadhaar cards are serving the purpose,” the official sources explained.
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The authorities stated that an “e-pass” system introduced in 45 fair price shops in Hyderabad, on the lines of disbursement of MGNREGS wages using a gadget to register biometric identity of the beneficiary, on experimental basis has yielded positive results in checking the leakage of PDS commodities.