NEW DELHI: The Fair Price Shop owners in the national capital have raised a ‘unique’ problem regarding the use of electronic- point of sale (E-PoS) machines for distributing food grains. Many times when the beneficiaries send their children to collect the entitled ration from the FPS, the biometric system based on the unique identification — Aadhaar card — registers mismatches.
“This happens because the biometrics of children who had registered 8 to 9 years back has not been updated and as the children grow up the biometrics machine does not recognise their fingerprints,” said Saurabh Gupta, president of Delhi Sarkari Ration Dealers Sangh.
All the PDS beneficiaries and their children who have Aadhaar, have their details on the ration card also. This is done so that in case the parents are unable to come to the shop to collect the monthly ration, their children can.
“When the biometrics mismatch happens, it creates a difficult situation for us as the beneficiaries think that we are doing some sort of mischief with them. Also, if the biometrics machine does not recognise the thumbprints, we cannot provide the ration. In that case, the child has to go back home and get the parents.
This increases the work,” added Gupta. He said that they have raised the matter with the government in during a recently held meeting with Food Minister Imran Hussain.
Thumbprint recognition
If the machine does not recognise the thumb prints, the dealer cannot provide ration to the beneficiary, forcing children to bring their parents to the shop