Link ration cards with Aadhar, HC tells Maha govt
Verification process will help weed out
bogus, duplicate ration cards, says division bench
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday
suggested to Maharashtra government to consider linking ration cards
with the newly introduced Aadhar cards so as to weed out bogus and
duplicate ration cards in the state.
A division bench of Justices A.M.
Khanwilkar and R.D.
Dhanuka took a serious view of the issue of bogus ration
cards and questioned the inaction on the part of the authorities. The
court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Jayprakash
Unecha two years back.
“Aren’t two years enough to unravel the mystery of bogus
ration cards?” the bench said, adding, the government was short of staff
and vision. “Will it not be a prudent approach in the matter to make it
compulsory to produce the Aadhar card for the issuance of a new ration
card? Why is the government not considering this? Unless you put a
verification process in place, you cannot track the duplicate or bogus
ration cards,” Justice Khanwilkar said.
When additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai
informed the court that the government was short-staffed, the bench
said, “Link everything to the Aadhar card scheme and make one team to
run it. No great changes need to be made. The state will have to only
link both the cards via a software.” Directing the government to
consider the link between the two cards, the court adjourned hearing of
the PIL till next week.