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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Smart cards to free PDS from graft

Smart cards to free PDS from graft

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published Published on Oct 15, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 15, 2010

The Assam government will introduce biometric smart cards for beneficiaries in three districts of the state on a pilot basis in order to make the public distribution system more transparent and efficient.

Assam food and civil supplies minister Nazrul Islam today announced that the Centre has cleared a Rs 8-crore proposal submitted by the government to computerise the system in three districts.

Under the scheme, the beneficiaries will be issued biometric ration cards in place of the existing ones.

He said the pilot project would be implemented in Kamrup, Nagaon and Karbi Anglong districts.

The new system will use fingerprints and iris as electronically preserved biometrics to have the individuals registered. These electronic records will be used to prepare ration cards and bar-coded coupons for beneficiaries.

The biometric technology help to identify and remove duplicate registration of beneficiaries. It will also eradicate invalid ration cards.

“It will also be introduced in the remaining districts of the state in a phased manner,” the minister said.

The minister admitted that 15 to 25 per cent of food items meant for distribution under PDS had not reached the beneficiaries.

“It (PDS) is a huge network comprising gaon panchayats, co-operative societies and more than 33,000 fair price shops, among others. It is not possible to plug the leakage unless we computerise the system,” Islam said.

He said the system would help maintain transparency in the PDS and drastically reduce the possibility of fraud.

The announcement came in the wake of widespread allegations that huge quantities of rice under various schemes meant to benefit people living below the poverty line are being diverted to the open market.

On October 12, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said the state government was involved in a Rs 10,000-crore PDS scam and demanded a CBI inquiry into it.

Patowary alleged that the Congress-led government was helping the black marketers to sell the fair price rice, wheat, sugar and other items, depriving the BPL beneficiaries.

The AGP chief cited a survey conducted by a central government accredited agency, the National Council of Allied Economic Research, which said Assam had topped the list in corruption in the PDS. The survey pointed out that 44.97 per cent of 475,000 MT rice meant for BPL families in Assam have been sold in the black market.

Islam today termed these allegations “false and baseless”.

“The survey Patowary was talking about was conducted in 2007 and the report was submitted early in 2008. We had contested the findings of the survey and registered our protest with the Centre. We wrote to the Centre stating that the sample survey was not based on facts,” he said.

“I want to ask AGP why it was silent when the survey report was submitted in 2008. AGP is raking up the issue now only to take political mileage and make it an issue in the Assembly election next year,” he added.


The Telegraph, 14 October, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101015/jsp/northeast/story_13058573.jsp


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