NASHIK: As many as one lakh ration card beneficiaries in the district will not get food grain for this month as they have not yet linked their Aadhaar numbers to their ration card. The district supply department has said that foodgrains will be provided to them only after registration of their Aadhaar number. Meanwhile, if the beneficiaries go to the ration shop and link the Aadhaar number, they will get the foodgrains.
The search to identity bogus ration card holders is underway to bring transparency to the public distribution system. At the same time, the foodgrains supply of over 1 lakh people has been stopped from the current month as they failed to link their Aadhaar number. A biometric system was developed by the government to bring transparency to the public distribution system and to curb black marketing.
Online distribution of foodgrains has also been started. Under the system, each district supply officer is required to inform the government about the requirement of foodgrains every month. Since it is online, the AEPDS system also shows how much grain was picked up and delivered. Besides, information on how much foodgrains a taluka needs, quantity and how much they distributed to shopkeepers can also be seen online. Plus it has also appeared online how many cardholders the shopkeeper has, the demand of foodgrains, its disbursal, and the foodgrain stock.
The process of the Aadhaar number linking of each ration beneficiary is now underway. The deadline for this was until February. However, one lakh beneficiaries have failed to link their Aadhaar number to the ration card. Therefore, such beneficiaries will not be given foodgrains in March.
“It is mandatory to link the Aadhaar number to the ration card. NIC is collecting information in detail about the beneficiaries.” – Arvind Narsikar, District Supply Officer, Nashik
