9065 - ‘Only nine out of 52 lakh holders linked Aadhaar to ration cards - Indian Express

The government had put the proposal to link ration cards with Aadhaar numbers so as to enhance the Public Distribution.

 By: Express News Service | Pune | Published:November 16, 2015 12:26 am

With the state government setting a deadline of November 30 for linking up Aadhaar cards with ration cards, the initiative has received a poor response from the ration card holders.

With the data entry of the ration cards being carried out, the department has stated that of the 52 lakh population of ration card holders, only nine lakh has had Aadhaar linkage while entry of 27 lakh names have been carried out by the officials.

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The government had put the proposal to link ration cards with Aadhaar numbers so as to enhance the Public Distribution. Officials stated the linkage would ensure that the benefits provided by the government would reach the beneficiaries and processes would remain transparent.

With the food security scheme being a prime focus, the linkage was suggested to close the loopholes in the distribution system. “We have to urge people to go to the fair price shop and link their ration cards with the Aadhaar card numbers,” said an official.

Two years ago, the drive to weed out bogus ration cards was carried out which required the individual to fill up the form and hand it over to the fair price shop giving details of the ration cards. However, the linkage will improve the transfer of subsidies, stated the officials.

At present, the number of people below poverty line in the state is at least seven crore, while 1.8 crore was registered as Above Poverty Line beneficiaries while a total 2.32 crore ration cards have been digitised with the state administration.

The initiative is to link ration cards to the Aadhaar card numbers and bank accounts which will be linked to the National Payment Corporation to transfer the subsidy amount.

Once the data is uploaded, the government can disburse the subsidy directly into the bank account bypassing the existing system.