CHENNAI: Field verification to ensure all ration cards are linked to Aadhaar cards (the Central government’s unique identification scheme) has been started by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, which looks after the public distribution of food grains through ration shops. This has become imperative when, as per reports, the number of people covered by ration cards is about 7.81 crore, while the State’s population is 7.21 crore.
This follows close on the heels of the State government agreeing to implement the Union government’s National Food Security Act for civil supplies distribution.
A senior official of the Civil Supplies Corporation said field verification was started on December 5 to ensure Aadhaar numbers of all ration card holders are seeded into the Public Distribution System (PDS) data base. The survey aims to earmark households in urgent need of being alleviated from poverty, households that have been termed Priority Households (PHH). “This tagging of PHH is to make sure that people, who most need supplies, benefit from other targeted schemes such as Annapurna Yojana,” said the official.
Contrary to a targeted PDS for people Below Poverty Line (BPL) that is followed in most States across the country, Tamil Nadu follows a universal system where everybody is entitled to basic fair-price supplies.
This earmarking will not deprive anybody of the ration they receive from PDS outlets, the official clarified.
Door-to-door identification of PHH will eliminate bogus card-holders. Deceased members of families, citizens who have migrated to other states or other districts within the same State, married card-holders whose name still exists on their old family card and people who hold multiple cards with different residences will be removed from the database.
“The linking of Aadhaar number with the ration family card will make sure that one person receives only one unit of basic supplies from the system,” the official said.
So far, over 6.5 crore card holders have linked their Aadhaar cards with the family ration card. This field verification will ensure that the remaining are included too. Data from this survey will be used for the benefit of smart-cards that will be used at point-of-sale machines installed in all fair-price shops across the State. These point-of-sale machines maintain a digital track of distribution and stock.