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Govt claims linking Aadhaar to PDS has plugged leaks, saved Rs 3,000 cr
The Maharashtra government’s initiative to computerise the public distribution system and link ration cards to Aadhaar has had impressive results, with the food and civil supplies department claiming to have saved foodgrains worth Rs 3,000 crore from being siphoned off. The initiative has helped the department detect 9.2 million fraudulent beneficiaries and 1.2 million fake ration cards so far.
This has come as a relief to the state at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a petition on whether the 12- digit unique identification number should be mandatory for access to the benefits of public schemes. The exercise of linking Aadhaar with ration cards was widely criticised after 11- year- old Santoshi Kumari from Jharkhand died of starvation on September 27 ( her family was denied foodgrains under the PDS as they didn’t have Aadhaar cards).
In Maharashtra, some 75 million families are entitled to PDS benefits. Each member of these families gets 5 kg foodgrains every month. The food and civil supplies department has installed biometric machines at 51,073 out of 52,213 PDS shops. A ration card holder has to record his/ her thumb impression in the system linked to Aadhaar. At the same time, department officials also monitor stocks at the shop from a control room in Mantralaya, Mumbai. “Bogus claimants have been weeded out. No eligible person is now deprived of his right to subsidised foodgrains,” says food minister Girish Bapat.
That said, the change of distribution norms for the Antyoday scheme, under which a family got up to 35 kg of foodgrains, has become a source of anger against the government. The new norm is: 5 kg of foodgrains per member. Officials say criteria had to be changed because of malpractices. “A family of two also used to get 35 kg foodgrains. They sold most of it to earn cash. Which is why we imposed restrictions,” says an official.