TIRUCHY: Launched by the late union minister Ram Vilas Paswan in 2019, the ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme was aimed at supporting daily wage earners and migrant labourers. Subsequently, biometric devices were set up at ration shops. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami launched the scheme in Tamil Nadu on October 1.
However, implementing the scheme before strengthening the technical infrastructure in rural areas has only made matters complicated. Reports of people being forced to wait in queues for a long time to buy goods have surfaced from rural areas in several districts. I was an agonising Sunday for several PDS card holders as a server crash in the morning deprived them of their monthly rations. It took hours for the system to be restored and distribution of commodities resumed in the afternoon.
Before biometric systems were installed, beneficiaries’ details would be noted in registers and entries marked in ration cards. However, leading up to the One Nation One Ration Card scheme, PDS outlets were fitted with biometric fingerprint scanners. This drew many complaints as sometimes the scanners failed to read the fingerprint, sometimes it delayed recognition and hence purchase.
One such incident occurred at many ration shops in Tiruchy on Sunday as the server crashed. Due to this, scanners did not pick up any fingerprints. Hence people who queued up at the shops had to wait for hours.
I Maria, a daily wage earner who visited the PDS outlet at Edamalaipatti Pudur, said, “I can afford to visit the shop only on Sundays.
I thought I can get back on time and cook lunch. Now, I have to skip work and come again next week,” Many consumers complained there was one issue or another at ration shops ever since the scanners were installed. When TNIE reached out to a cooperative department official, he said, “It was a server problem and was fixed soon. We are working to ensure that such incidents don’t occur again.” Asked about the machines not recognising fingerprints at times, he said, “Today it was a server issue and we couldn’t do anything. However, if the server was up and the prints weren’t picked up we can manage distribution with smart cards.”