Now, fingerprint must for rations

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 21

The government is hopeful of checking pilferage and misuse of ration cards with the installation of Aadhaar-enabled fingerprint point-of-sale (POS) machines at all 4,860 fair price shops in the state, with the exercise formally beginning today.

The exercise which began today at 24 fair price shops run by the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation is expected to be complete in all 4,800 fair price shops by March 31, 2017. The state government is hopeful that the exercise will put an end to the pilferage, with there being more than 16 lakh ration-card holders of various categories in the state.

“We already have 76 per cent coverage with regard to Aadhaar linked ration cards and we hope to have cent per cent coverage at the earliest,” said Tarun Kapoor, Principal Secretary, Forests and Civil Supplies. He, however, clarified that keeping in mind the limitations and handicap faced by certain sections like elderly, invalid and people with disabilities, a provision for authorisation to another person would be made.

Kapoor said the department would make a provision to make these POS machines cashless to a large extent with various options for payment being there. The government decided to install the machines as much to everyone’s surprise the entire stock of food grains being supplied to these fair price shops was being lifted and shown as consumed, which was practically impossible.

Since the disbursement of subsidised ration will be Aadhaar-card linked, it will be possible for any member of the family to collect the ration by giving his or her fingerprint. The installation of the POS machines will also reflect the stock availability of food grain and other items at any place under the public distribution system (PDS), helping the corporation to know where there is shortage and supply needs to be made. Consumers will also get the facility of knowing about the dates when the stocks arrive in the fair price shops.

The state government is providing three pulses, cooking oil and salt to all its over 16 lakh ration-card holders in varying quantity as per the number of family members against each card. The state government makes a budgetary allocation of over Rs 200 crore every year to provide these subsidised food items to all ration-card holders in the state.