Smart Cards: Officials racing to April 1 deadline

To achieve this, the civil supplies personnel are working at a hectic pace. The authorities are leaving no stone unturned to hasten the process. The government wanted to introduce smart ration cards in an effort to put various malpractice in the public distribution system. 

Also with Aadhar and mobile phone data, chances of duplication was rampant. Once after the smart cards come into usage, all fraudulent activities could be curbed to a large extent. 

The primary aim of the smart card was to weed out bogus documents, claim revenue department officials. The state government’s PDS website states that 1.94 crore ration cards have a total 7.20 crore beneficiary base. But the same website also claims that cards with Aadhaar inputs totalled to 5.59 crore while those with mobile phone numbered to 1.65 crore thereby totalling 7.24 crore, nearly 4 lakh more beneficiaries than the official figures. 

The department currently accepts Aadhaar details of the main beneficiary plus one family member. In December 2016, it was announced that smart cards would roll out on January 1. But, the plan got delayed due to various reasons and additional pages with a year’s validity was attached to existing cards. 

Now, the deadline for smart card has been set as April 1. Top officials in food department say, “Though smart cards will be issued from April 1, existing ration cards will continue to be valid. Simultaneously work on corrections and deletions will also be done.”  

Chennai city, which earlier lagged other districts in collecting Aadhaar input, with a mere 47 per cent achievement has now crossed 60 per cent. Chennai was slow when compared with other districts due to manpower shortage for such work. 

Districts have separate taluk level supply officials. To make up, the food department had moved its staff from districts where the work was nearly over and hence they could be spared. “Verification work in Chennai is underway,” a top official said.