Residents of the district allege that they are finding it difficult to get essential items every month due to malfunctional biometric fingerprint scanners in most PDS shops. This, they say, often leads to arguments with staff at fair price shops.
Essential commodities are being distributed through smart cards and the government introduced biometric fingerprint scanner system in all PDS shops. However, cardholders allege that the scanners don't work properly.
A section of them said most shops in the eastern and western parts of the district, especially those in Nadu Agraharam, Keezha Chinthamani, Vennis Street, Poosari Street and Malaikottai, develop server problems in the scanner machine for over 10 days a month.
Several complaints have been submitted at the Collectorate and District Supply Officer, but in vain. V Vijayalakshmi a cardholder from Poosari Street, told TNIE, "Every month, I go pick up provisions in the second or third week. I went to the outlet around 11.30 am last Friday. However, the fingerprint scanner did not verify the impressions of the cardholders, including mine. I waited there for a long time, but the machine did not work due to some server issue. I went to the store again the next day, but it did not work then, too. I could pick up my provisions only on Saturday. The issue occurs almost every month."
Another cardholder, S Vinoth of Vennis Street, said, "The scanner does not work at least 10 days in a month in the shop where I go. Sometimes it works, but it fails to scan our fingerprints. Although this problem persists, the salesman refuses to distribute essentials to us through the old billing system. This leads to daily arguments between us and the staff. We could not get the items for a few months due to the problem. Authorities should take action and put the bill system in place as standby."
When TNIE inquired at some shops, the salesmen admitted to facing the scanner issue every month. "The scanner works daily from 9 am to 11.45 am. It will not work after that. But people only come after 11 am. Sometimes we are able to distribute essentials only to a handful of people per day. Besides, due to the
biometric problem, goods pile up in the shops at the end of the month. We have informed senior officials about it."