Ration supply stopped to 15 lakh Aadhaar cardholders

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 5

The linking of ration cards with Aadhaar has hit a major roadblock as over 15 lakh duplicate Aadhaar number holders have been detected in the state. The Food and Civil Supplies Department has stopped the supply of ration under the public distribution system (PDS) to such beneficiaries.

A total of 1.32 crore people are enrolled under the PDS in the state. The process is being undertaken under the National Food Security Act, 2013, to eliminate fake beneficiaries and bringing transparency in the PDS.

The department said 88 per cent of the total ration cards had been linked to the Aadhaar under the Aadhaar seeding of the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) by July 4. However, it has been found that one Aadhaar number has been provided more than once in a large number of cases, which led to duplicity or repetition of the same Aadhaar number.

Though the officials have failed to detect the exact reason, there seems to be a possibility that individuals have more than one ration card and provided same Aadhaar at other ration depots. There is also a possibility of error by the data entry operators.

“There are instances where one Aadhaar number is being used at multiple places by the ration cardholders. We got all the Aadhaar numbers checked by the National Informatics Centre at the headquarters, which has detected this faux pas,” said Subhash Chander Sihag, Hisar District Food and Supplies Commissioner (DFSC).

NK Mittal, Deputy Director, Food and Civil Supplies, Chandigarh, however, said the error was being rectified by procuring documents from such persons who had furnished same Aadhaar numbers. “Ration cardholders will not get any supply till they provide valid Aadhaar numbers,” he said.

An NIC official said there was zero scope of any error in preparing Aadhaar cards. “It is impossible that one Aadhaar number is issued to two individuals. The mistake occurred either in the feeding of number or individuals deliberately used the same number at more than one place,” he said.