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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Another reason

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published Published on Jun 8, 2010   modified Modified on Jun 8, 2010


In the hierarchy of sins, robbing the poorest of the poor is right up there. That is what the holders of the 11.28 lakh fake ration cards in Madhya Pradesh are guilty of. By state government estimates, these duplicates constitute 16 per cent of all ration cards in the state. Since the Below Poverty Line and Antyodaya (meant for the very poorest) cards entitle holders to essential food commodities such as wheat and rice at subsidised rates, fake cards rip off the public exchequer. MP isn’t an isolated case. In March, a committee appointed by the Supreme Court described the Rs 28,000 crore annual subsidy the Centre provides for the PDS as “inefficient and corrupt”. Nor is the PDS any different from other welfare schemes that India provides its poor. From duplicate PAN numbers to bogus NREGA job cards, leakage in delivery of basic services is the Achilles Heel of the world’s largest democracy.

That is precisely where the Unique Identification Authority of India comes in. The unique number it aims to confer every resident, contains biometric information (photograph, finger prints, iris scan), and every addition is cross-checked with the existing database. These numbers will eventually appear on all official ID cards Indian residents possess, making duplication that much harder. The benefits will extend to other welfare schemes such as the proposed Food Security Act, whose success is contingent on the correct identification of BPL, Above Poverty Line and Antyodaya families.

With India’s economy growing at 7.4 per cent, sharing the gains with those being left behind hinges on massive state entitlements such as NREGA and PDS. An effectively implemented Unique ID scheme would help seal these programmes against leakage. Critics of UIDAI point to the need for data protection and privacy laws. But the scale of fraud in the MP PDS system shows yet again why, in a democracy committed to reaching to the needy their entitlements, an enlightened balance is important — and why the Unique ID scheme is so important.


The Indian Express, 8 June, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/another-reason/630790/


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