NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has directed its assistant commissioners to ensure testing of
e-PoS devices at fair price shops under their jurisdiction by Saturday evening for hassle-free rollout of the “One Nation One Ration Card” scheme of the central government.
Additional Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies Department, Kuldeep Singh issued an order on Friday warning of action against officials if the test transactions are not conducted using e-PoS devices, which are central to the implementation of the ONORC scheme.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered implementation of the scheme across the country by July 31. Under the scheme, persons holding a ration card under the National Food Security Act can collect their monthly quota of food grain from any FPS across the country.
The portability depends on ePoS machines, which use Aadhaar-linked biometric authentication to verify the identity and entitlement of beneficiaries. On July 7, the department had directed 117 out of the 2,000-odd FPS in Delhi to conduct 50 trial transactions through e-PoS devices to ensure preparedness for the launch of the scheme in the national capital.
Earlier, training was given to all FPS dealers regarding e-PoS operation. “Despite passage of a week’s time, as reported by IT Branch, still 117 FPSs have not tested e-PoS devices even for a single transaction. This is a grave matter and may affect smooth roll out of ONORC scheme,” Singh said in the order.
“Asstt. Commissioners are directed to ensure testing each and every e-PoS devices under their jurisdiction by 5 pm Saturday. Non-compliance will be taken seriously,” the order stated.