7317 - Punjab to issue Aadhaar linked e-ration cards - Niti Central

Punjab to issue Aadhaar linked e-ration cards

FEB 03, 2015

NITI PTI BOT

Chandigarh, Feb 2 (PTI) Punjab will issue Aadhaar-linked e-ration cards to ensure that only genuine beneficiaries get subsidised foodgrain.

“All the identified beneficiaries are being distributed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) compliant e-ration cards,” said state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon.

Punjab is the first state in the country to have initiated the e-ration cards to ensure that only genuine and deserving beneficiaries get subsidised ration, he added.

After implementation of National Food Security Act, distribution of subsidised foodgrain is being done strictly on the basis of digitised database of the ration card holders, the Minister said.

Punjab is among the first states to have implemented the National Food Security Act 2013. About 31 lakh beneficiary families were covered under the subsidised foodgrain scheme, he said.

Kairon said earlier only about 11 per cent of state’s population was eligible for receiving subsidised foodgrains, which was much lower than in neighbouring states like Haryana with the same socio economic pattern.

After the aggressive persuasion by the state government, the coverage has increased manifold, he said.

Under the food security law, 54.79 per cent rural and 44.83 per cent urban population in the state are to be covered under this Act.

Of the total population of 2.77 crore, 1.41 crore individuals were entitled for receiving subsidised food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System and NFSA, he said.

Kairon said that as per the provisions of this Act, every person identified under the priority households would be distributed five kilograms of coarse food grains (Rs 1 per kg) or wheat (Rs 2 per kg) or rice (Rs 3 per kg) per month.

PTI

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This news article was auto-generated by our PTI News algorithm. Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from PTI and do not reflect the views of Niti Central and Niti Central is not responsible or liable for the same. PTI is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

7211 - Rice Scheme: Survey in Urban Areas Not Complete - New Indian Express

Rice Scheme: Survey in Urban Areas Not Complete

By Express News Service

Published: 14th January 2015 06:00 AM

HYDERABAD: The civil supplies department is yet to complete the process of enquiries in urban areas like Hyderabad, Medak, Warangal and Karimnagar districts.

The department is in the process of making enquiries to list all the beneficiaries so that they would be included in the 6-kilo rice scheme for every member of the family.

Commissioner of civil supplies C Partha Sarathi reviewed the scheme under the Food Security Act with chief rationing officer, district resource persons and NIC officials. 

The commissioner observed that enquiries were completed in all the rural and some urban areas but not completed in some urban areas like Hyderabad, Medak (Patancheru, Ramchandrapuram, Siddipet and Medak (urban), Warangal (Warangal and Hanamkonda) and Karimnagar (Siricilla and Ramagundam) districts. Partha Sarathi said all enquiries should be completed speedily so that all eligible beneficiaries should be supplied 6 kg of rice each on all the Food Security Cards.

Instances have come to their notice that a number of beneficiaries are yet to be identified in some urban areas. The beneficiaries should be identified without further loss of time and depending upon their eligibility criteria, the beneficiaries should be covered under the Food Security Act and no eligible beneficiary should be left out, he said.

He observed that seeding throughout Telangana was about 95 pc but the seeding with database of FSC ranged from 57 pc to 75 pc in the districts, and the average seeding throughout the state was 66 pc.

The commissioner of civil supplies categorically reiterated that no eligible beneficiaries should be left out without supply at 6 kg rice on the pretext that he had not been allotted the Aadhaar number. In such cases temporary approval for release of quota can be given and the individuals may be requested to furnish the Aadhaar number later so that no ineligible name crops up in the database so that there is no pilferage of essential commodities leading to black-marketing of the commodities.

7054 - Centre raps states over food security Act implementation - Live Mint

Centre raps states over food security Act implementation 

Will not allow states to avail of subsidies under the above-poverty-line category if they do not complete procedures under NFSA by April 2015, says Paswan Sayantan Bera 

  A file photo of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Photo: 

Mint New Delhi: The ambitious initiative to provide subsidized foodgrains to a vast swath of India’s population is struggling as states go slow on identifying beneficiaries, digitizing records and taking steps for doorstep delivery, forcing the Centre to threaten coercive action to get the ambitious plan rolling. 

After a review meeting with food secretaries of states and union territories, Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said many states have requested extending the deadline to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which was enacted last year. 

“Even after extending the deadline twice, states have failed to complete formalities. Unless they finish identification and digitization of beneficiary list and Aadhaar seeding with ration cards, in future, we will ensure that food subsidy is availed of by only those who complete the procedures,” Paswan said. “We will not allow states to avail of subsidies under the above-poverty-line (APL) category if they do not complete procedures under NFSA by April 2015,” he added. As of now, only 11 states including Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are implementing NFSA. 

Others have not yet identified beneficiaries entitled to wheat at Rs.2 per kg and rice at Rs.3 per kg guaranteed under the Act. NFSA entitles 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to five kilos of food grain per person per month at subsidised rates. When the law was enacted in July 2013, states were asked to finish implementation procedures by June 2014. 

The deadline was later extended by six months and has been further extended to 5 April. “Today, Jharkhand informed that they will be ready to implement NFSA by June next year while Odisha said they will take till August 2015,” Paswan said. “Even states which are implementing the Act are yet to complete procedures like end-to-end computerisation of the public distribution system (PDS), seeding of ration cards with Aadhaar card and ensure doorstep delivery of grains.” 

The minister said Bihar was yet to complete identification of more than a crore beneficiaries, while Rajasthan and Punjab were yet to take up digitization of records. Maharashtra has seeded only 40% of ration cards with Aadhaar and is yet to take any measures to ensure doorstep delivery. 

“We want the system to be transparent. Right now, there is no way to ensure that benefits are reaching the beneficiaries or PDS grains are sold in the open market,” Paswan said, adding, “in the past, poor quality foodgrains supplied under the mid-day meal scheme (meant for school-going children) have been reported widely.” 

However, activists say the Aadhaar-ration card linkage is not mandatory. “The NFSA does not require linking Aadhaar cards with ration cards,” said Dipa Sinha, a Right to Food campaigner and fellow at the Centre for Equity Studies in New Delhi. “The centre’s insistence could be a precursor to direct cash transfers. Further, the NFSA does not spell out the criterion for identifying beneficiaries and states like Jharkhand and Odisha may be taking more time as the number of beneficiary under NFSA will double in these states,” said Sinha. In the current financial year, Rs.1.11 trillion is set aside as food subsidy to implement the NFSA and the existing targeted PDS. “The food minister is on the dot with his insistence on digitisation of PDS records,” said Ashok Gulati, chair professor for agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. “The old system suffers from huge leakages going up to 40% of the food subsidy bill and states must finish procedures before the centre puts more money into a broken bucket.” “To put in place a digitized system with Aadhaar seeding—like in the case of subsidized cooking gas—will enable the transition into a direct cash transfer system in future. This will further help plug leakages,” Gulati added.

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/JHm4IGF70mYkfmtW2vyzGP/Centre-raps-states-over-food-security-Act-implementation.html?utm_source=copy

6024 - To Improve PDS, State Mulls Ration Card, Aadhaar Link-Up - Free Press Journal

To Improve PDS, State Mulls Ration Card, Aadhaar Link-Up

— By FPJ Bureau | Nov 16, 2014 12:02 am

Mumbai : The State government is mulling a proposal to link ration cards with Aadhaar numbers so as to enhance the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state.

The move is being planned with a view to ensuring that the benefits provided by the government reach the beneficiaries and the process remains transparent.

“The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has been very enthusiastic about the food security scheme. In keeping with that, the state government, too, has shown its keenness in continuing with the scheme in Maharashtra minus the loopholes in the PDS,” Deepak Kapoor, Food and Civil Supplies Secretary told PTI.

The senior officer said that the state Cabinet has asked the administration to be ready with a presentation on the food security scheme, initiated by the previous UPA government at the Centre, following which a final decision to link the two will be taken.

“We will be dividing our presentation into three parts. First, we have to present the current scenario to the government, which would help them gauge the situation on ground. We will also be presenting a financial picture which would help assess the cost structure.

“We will finally be putting in our suggestions, after considering which, the Cabinet will take a final call,” he said.

“It is here that we will suggest to the government to link ration cards with Aadhaar numbers so that the right beneficiary gets benefits and the role of middlemen can be contained,” Kapoor said.

At present, the number of people below poverty line (BPL) in Maharashtra is around 7 crore, while 1.8 crore are registered as Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries.

A total of 2.32 crore ration cards are already digitised with the state administration. The Director of the Information and Technology department, Virendra Singh, said that the administration is ready to link Aadhaar numbers of ration cardholders at any given point of time.

“About 9.3 crore people have so far enrolled for Aadhaar cards with 8.6 crore cards having been already generated. We would like to ensure that more than 95 per cent of the people have Aadhaar cards before March, 2015,” said Singh.

He added that upon receiving Cabinet approval, a pilot scheme would be launched in two districts, one of them being Wardha. If the response is satisfactory, it would be extended to other districts as well.

“Wardha is 100 per cent Aadhaar enrolled. We will take a final decision on the other district soon,” he said.          

-PTI

- See more at: http://freepressjournal.in/to-improve-pds-state-mulls-ration-card-aadhaar-link-up/#sthash.tMxC45fX.dpuf

5863 - Aadhaar helps to weed out fake ration card applications - The Hindu

Aadhaar helps to weed out fake ration card applications 

Vishal Kant 

Almost 50 per cent of ration cards in the city are bogus 

The 12-digit unique identity number, Aadhaar, has helped the Delhi Government filter and weed out lakhs of fake ration card applications received by the Food and Supplies Department for food security cards.

In the second phase of the Food Security Scheme, the department had received applications from 21 lakh families having 74.09 lakh members. Of these, 65.22 lakh had submitted their Aadhaar (UID) number while the rest had submitted their Aadhaar Enrolment Number (EID). During verification through the Aadhaar Server, as many as 4.43 lakh UIDs and 8.5 lakh EID numbers were found to be suspicious. 

The officials said while verification of the applicants is still on, around 1.75 lakh applications are set to be cancelled as the UID and EID numbers of all the family members provided in the forms have emerged to be fictitious. 

“The fact that the unique numbers of all the family members are not authentic, makes it clear that they were intentionally submitted to get bogus ration cards. While we are verifying all the suspicious cases, these applications are all set to be cancelled,” said a senior Delhi Government official. 

Unlike earlier, Aadhaar numbers have emerged as an important tool in verifying the applications right in the beginning.

“Earlier there was no fool-proof system to verify the authenticity of the applicants. But now the unique number has emerged to be the first gatekeeper in filtering the applications. The moment these numbers are cross verified with the Aadhaar Server, it throws up all the suspicious cases instantly that includes mismatch in the demographic details,” an official said. 

The department is now verifying all the suspicious cases before taking a final call on these applications. They admit there could be some revision in the list due to mistakes at data entry stage on part of the department operators. The mismatch verification is being done keeping in mind certain parameters like names, gender and age of the family members in the applications, officials said. The revision of ration cards takes place every 6-7 years. Officials insist its is important to ensure that only the right people get ration card in the new food security regime as the quantity of entitlements for all beneficiary families would be fixed depending on the number of members each family has. 

Ever since the Food Security Act was implemented in September last year and the process of verification of the existing ration cards launched, around 8.5 lakh existing ration cards – almost 50 per cent of the total – in the city have been discovered to be bogus. 

Allotment of foodgrains against these ration card holders to the ration shop owners have been stopped in phases. The Delhi Government is saving around Rs. 50 crore per month due to prevention of this leakage, officials said.