Bengaluru Jan 4: Aadhaar seeding of ration cards has helped weed out 8.5 lakh bogus cards, Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader said on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said that the Food and Civil Supplies department has saved around Rs 450 crore in the last few months after the removal of such cards.
He said that due to the prevalence of such cards, each fair price shop was supplying ration to 60-70 extra cards, which have now been removed from the system. He said that 99.99% of Aadhaar seeding of ration cards had been achieved.
Khader said that around 80% of the fair price shops had installed the biometric point of sale (PoS) machines. Of the 20,335 shops in the state, PoS machines had been installed in 16,832 shops.
In the remining shops, PoS machines will be installed under Common Service Centres (CSC) Scheme, which is a Central government initiative.
Here, a private agency will be allowed to install biometric PoS devices and provide broadband connectivity to the devices.
Presently, the biometric devices lack internet connectivity.
Khader also said that all shops will eventually be upgraded to 'Seva Sindhu Kendras', where consumers can avail of benefits of 22 services such as PAN and Aadhaar cards, along with their monthly ration.
The minister said the department had received 15.47 lakh new applications seeking ration cards since January 2017. Of this, the department has printed and delivered 11.71 lakh cards to the applicants.
Anila Bhagya
Khader said that the Food and Civil Supplies department will start accepting applications under Anila Bhagya scheme from January 16.
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