By Sowmya Aji, ET Bureau | 28 May, 2016, 01.37AM IST
The move takes forward Karnataka’s efforts to weed out bogus ration cards by using the beneficiary’s Aadhaar number to validate genuine ones.
A pilot project carried out by Karnataka for biometric authentication of PDS beneficiaries was a grand success though there were some teething problems, writes Sowmya Aji.
Taking forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India initiative , the Congress government in Karnataka is trying to fix bugs in the use of Aadhaar to supply food grains through the public distribution system by adopting an old Gujarat model of using food coupons.
A pilot project using this revised model in Bengaluru, covering the supply of four litres of kerosene a card in a mere 50 shops, has shown runaway success: the state has managed to save Rs 12.16 lakh in one month.
"The feedback has been very good. We are expanding it to other urban areas shortly and then take it to all rural areas," Dinesh Gundu Rao, Karnataka's food and civil supplies minister, told ET.
The move takes forward Karnataka's efforts to weed out bogus ration cards by using the beneficiary's Aadhaar number to validate genuine ones. About 70% of the 1.08 crore ration card holders in the state have already submitted their Aadhaar numbers and the remaining is expected to be covered by July.
At least 11 states have already gone in for supply of foodgrains against Aadhaar authentication at the ration shops, in an effort to weed out spurious cards and siphoning from the PDS. However, with the exception of Andhra Pradesh that has shown a saving of Rs 20 crore by using this method in the PDS, biometric authentication at the point of sale (PoS) has become almost a logistical nightmare.
Karnataka has also set up PoS machines in 3,000 of the state's 20,000 fair-price shops and the experience has left both officials and beneficiaries struggling. Problems include lack of power supply, no battery backup, inadequate Internet connections and difficulties in reading the thumb on several machines.
"The idea of giving us the rations based only on biometrics is good," says Poosamma, 65, an agarbatti roller at Swatantrapalya, Bengaluru. The problem she faces is a class example of issues with the PoS machine: her fingerprints are worn out due to the job she does. "Often, the PoS machine at our ration shop does not read my finger and it is a constant struggle till it works. This problem needs to be addressed," she says.
The state's food and civil supplies department says Aadhaar authentication of the beneficiary is the answer, as all 10 fingerprints as well as the iris can be matched.
By verifying the Aadhaar number against the ration card of the beneficiary, the authentication is done. And instead of doing this verification at the PoS and causing long queues, the beneficiary is given coupons — via SMS or the print ones — to collect rations easily.
The mobile system is the easiest: the beneficiary sends a message to a number given by the department from the mobile that he or she has registered with Aadhaar. The number automatically works as Aadhaar verification in the F&CS server and a PDS coupon code is sent to the mobile. The beneficiary then shows the mobile code to the fair-price shop and collects his ration.
For those not mobile-savvy, Aadhaar authentication is done either at the gram panchayat's kiosks in rural areas and civic centres like Bengaluru One in urban. Beneficiaries will be given paper coupons for six months against one authentication, which they will present to the shops.
"It is an idea whose time has come. It will be a game changer," says the department's secretary, Harsh Gupta. "The Gujarat model using print coupons was very successful.
We felt we could solve the problem of biometric authentication each time the beneficiary needs to pick up rations by giving them multi-month coupons against one authentication."
ET visited a very backward part of Bengaluru, where the poorest, who use kerosene for cooking, are getting printed coupons in the pilot phase. They are not able to figure out the mobile method.
Valliamma Ramamurthy, Rukmini Govindaraj and Shanti Gopal are at the Bengaluru One centre in Srirampuram for the third time this week, as the server was not connecting to the F&CS one each time they came. "I could have spent the money on a meal rather than on autos to reach this place each time," Valliamma says, while Shanti frets about having missed the domestic work she does at various homes to make time to collect coupons.
They agree they have to be authenticated to get their rations. "We don't want other people to take our rations or siphon off subsidies in our name. Authentication is needed, but we wish the governments and services will get their act together and make supply for us hassle-free," Rukmini says.
The server works at that moment and she is all smiles, as her coupon has been printed out in a minute.
"Don't worry," F&CS deputy directors Sharanbasappa and Rajanna assure her. "Next time, we will give you three-month coupons and you will have fewer hassles."
M Ramamurthy, who runs a cooperative fair-price shop in the same area, also needs convincing. "I am opening an app on my smartphone, scanning the barcode on the coupon the beneficiaries bring, uploading the bill and the coupon on to the server and giving people their kerosene quota. I am all for technology, but it is taking me 10 minutes to serve one person," he rues.
"We are looking at the problems and how to solve them. These are still less than the errors and the problems the PoS machines have caused," minister Rao contended.
Karnataka's Centre for e-Governance chief executive Rathan U Kelkar said the process of verifying all the ration card data against Aadhaar would start in a few days. "We are looking at a software that Andhra Pradesh used to authenticate data. They have used voice to pronounce names also, rather than just read it. We will decide on this in a few days and do the verification of the ration card database," he said.
