To prevent fake ration cards, CAPD Dept to go online

Rifat Mohidin

Srinagar, December 17

To do away with fake ration cards across the Valley, the Department of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) is all set to digitise its operations from next month.

After the floods the locals claimed that there was mismanagement in distribution of ration and many were not able to get it on time due to bogus ration cards.

It leads to protests and demonstrations at many places leading to law and order problems in Srinagar.

The officials of the department said after the process of digitising was over, they would start online issuance of ration cards and other works making everything transparent in the department.

“People will have to fill the declaration form and their details will go online. This is being done to do away with fake ration cards which create problems in fair distribution of ration, the blame of which later comes on the department,” said Director, CAPD, Bilal Ahmad Bhat.

For the past many days, people have been continuously protesting in many parts of Srinagar, alleging delay in the supply of ration for the past three months, but the department said they were continuously sending the supplies to all ration depots. “We have been continuously sending the supplies to all parts of Srinagar, but there is a big problem due to the presence of fake ration cards. Now, this whole problem will be solved with digitisation in the department which will be implemented next month. People of every locality will be registered online serial wise and they will also get to know about the availability of supplies,” the official said.

“The operations of the CAPD are also online in other parts of the country like Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and some parts of Punjab,” he added.

The project of digitisation has been divided into four components, which includes supply chain management, ration card management, fair price shop automation and grievance redressal - Citizen Interface.

The residents have also welcomed the step, saying that it will ease of their burden and will make the distribution process fair. “There was no management in place at all. There was no fair and proper distribution of ration, besides fights used to take place at ration depots between people. The online system is a welcome step. This will help people at large,” said Mehraj Ahmad, a resident of Srinagar.