Hyderabad, October 09: Public distribution system (PDS) is all set to go hi-tech. Probably for the first time in the country, the civil supplies department will interlink its Smart Cards project with the Central government’s Aadhar project being implemented by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This will not only prevent bogus ration cards but also ensure that the beneficiaries get their share of ration every month.
The civil supplies department which partnered with the UIDAI for implementation of the Aadhar project, will issue Smart Card for every ration card holder which contains a microchip with the demographic and biometric data of an entire family or an individual procured through the Aadhar project. While the unique identification number is given to each family member of all age groups, the Smart Card will be given to a family.
‘’Many people are hiding information including their financial status to get benefited under various government welfare programmes. Interlinking the Smart Card project with the UIDAI project will help us to weed out bogus ration cards,” civil supplies commissioner Sanjay Jaju said. According to him, a pilot project by the civil supplies department using Smart Cards revealed that ration worth about Rs 40 crore is being misused by the fair price shop dealers. The official said that the fair price shop owners were showing that 100 per cent ration allocated to them was distributed though only a part of it is being supplied to the ration card holders.
Further, the officials also wanted to curb illegal usage of LPG connections.
Sanjay Jaju said that large number of bogus gas connections were identified during an inspection of a gas agency on the city outskirts recently. He said that the department is also planning to enter into an agreement with the oil and gas companies to make the UID number/ Smart Card mandatory to get a LPG connection to prevent such irregularities.
Civil supplies minister J Krishna Rao told reporters that the UID numbers combined with the Smart Cards will prevent pilferage of goods distributed apart from putting an end to corruption and irregularities.
The Smart Cards issued by the civil supplies department will be eventually used as multipurpose cards for identification of beneficiaries under different government welfare programmes. The state government has decided to use the Smart Cards for checking irregularities in various government schemes like scholarships, ration cards, pensions and even gas connections where the state government provides LPG cylinders under subsidy.
–Agencies