CHENNAI: Following e-KYC (know your customer) verification of Priority Household (PHH) ration cards — under which rice, wheat and ragi entitlements are fully funded by the union government — the state government is undertaking the drive among Non-Priority Household (NPHH) cardholders, around 70% of whom have been covered so far, official sources said.
The exercise aims to weed out duplicate entries and facilitate the removal of deceased persons from ration cards. While the state government provides an average annual subsidy of Rs 6,500 to Rs 6,600 for every ration card holder, there are about 3.39 crore members enrolled under 1.11 crore NPHH cards across Tamil Nadu for whom the supply of all essential commodities is fully funded by the former.
As part of the verification exercise, all members listed in a ration card are required to complete biometric authentication through fingerprint or iris scanning at fair price shops. A section of NPHH cardholders, however, allege that ration shop staff informed them that failure to complete the e-KYC process could result in their name being removed from ration cards.
Official sources in the food department replied that the exercise is aimed at maintaining updated records so that eligible NPHH beneficiaries can be upgraded to PHH status whenever vacancies arise due to the death of existing PHH cardholders. “Hence, we want to ensure that NPHH cardholders also complete e-KYC so that eligible beneficiaries can avail of union government subsidies in future,” an official said.
The official added that around 70% of those covered under NPHH card category have completed their e-KYC. “Food entitlements will not be denied to anyone, including those who are yet to complete e-KYC. The exercise is being carried out only to ensure uniformity in authentication,” the official said.
Further, the official stated that except for those who have shifted to other states or abroad, or are terminally ill, nearly 98% of PHH cardholders have completed their e-KYC. Tamil Nadu has 98.58 lakh PHH ration cards and 18.65 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards. In total, 3.62 crore people enrolled under 1.17 crore PHH and AAY cards are covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The state government allocates an average of Rs 17,500 crore annually for the food department, including a food subsidy of Rs 14,300 crore.
