RAMANATHAPURAM, August 27, 2016
“Point of Sale device introduced at 20,000 fair price shops”
Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection S. Gopalakrishnan has said credit card-like smart cards would replace the existing book-type family cards when the validity of the cards expired by the year end.
Talking to reporters after chairing a review meeting with Collector S. Natarajan and officials on automation and computerisation of public distribution system (PDS) here on Friday, he said printing of smart cards would begin soon after creation of new family card database based on information collected from Aadhaar cards was completed.
The process of creating family card data was going on in full swing and expected to be completed by September-end. On collection of the data, valid and updated information of PDS beneficiaries would be available for issue of smart cards.
He said salesmen in about 20,000 of the 35,000 fair price shops in the State had been provided with ‘Point of Sale’ devices to capture Aadhaar-linked data. Salesmen in Chennai and Coimbatore regions would be given the devices in the coming days, he said.
Pointing out that nearly 6.5 crore of the seven crore people in the State had got Aadhaar cards, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said the remaining 50 lakh cards were in the pipeline. Production of Aadhaar cards for updating the data of PDS beneficiaries was not a problem.
“The existing ration cards will be allowed to expire by December-end, and there is no question of pasting additional pages,” he said, adding the beneficiaries could use the smart cards from January 2017.
Computerisation of the PDS would ensure total transparency in distribution of essential commodities at all levels, he said.
The card holders would get information through their mobile phones the moment they purchased essential items from a particular shop. Besides, officials and the public could monitor the stock positions in fair price shops by visiting the official website. After completing the process, the government was hopeful of plugging leakages and wiping out bogus ration cards, he added.