Jammu and Kashmir Government detected more than ten lakh bogus beneficiaries, who were getting subsidized ration from the outlets of the Department of the Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution across the Union Territory.
Reports said that fake ration cards were detected during the e-verification process which was launched to single out duplicate cards. After getting information regarding fake ration cards, the department has started re-verification of all cardholders through Aadhaar cards.
During a meeting with Union Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution, Sanjeev Chopra, Commissioner Secretary of Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Zubair Ahmad said that Aadhaar seeding has facilitated the removal of more than a million bogus beneficiaries.
He informed the Union Secretary that there are 24.80 lakh ration card holders in J&K covering a population of 96.74 lakh beneficiaries with cent percent Aadhaar Seeding.
Zubair Ahmed said the Public Distribution System in J&K is built around a strong and widespread network of 6735 ration shops including 2104 govt shops and 4631 private outlets. He said ePoS devices have been installed in all the sale outlets across J&K and the distribution process is fully automated with an Aadhaar authentication rate of 93.85% in transactions. He said 6393 PoS machines are working in an online mode.
J&K ranks in 10th place in ONORC transactions
Regarding One Nation-One Ration Card (ONORC), Zubair Ahmed said that till last month, 39,125 ONORC transactions were made, taking J&K to 10th position in the country. He said also during this period 13,50,513 portability (Inter-District) transactions were made.
Zubair Ahmed said that 8,94,891.33 MTs of food grains were distributed in seven phases spanning April 2020 to December 2022 under Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY, besides the distribution made under NFSA and non-NFSA to eligible beneficiaries.
Commissioner Secretary said that proper implementation of supply chain management (SCM) has remained the area of focus and the Department has been able to achieve implementation of 98% of SCM, despite difficult terrains, internet issues, peculiar situation, lack of requisite IT infrastructure and electricity issues.
Union Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Sanjeev Chopra, has appreciated the reforms introduced by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), J&K for holistic transformation and streamlining of the public distribution system.
Fake ration card scam exposed during e-verification
As reported earlier fake ration cards were detected during the e-verification process which was started to single out duplicate cards. After getting information regarding fake ration cards, the department has started re-verification of all cardholders through Aadhaar cards.
The thumb impressions and other details of the consumers were entered online during e-verification to detect fake consumers.
Not only natives of Jammu and Kashmir but some non-locals were also singled out for getting ration from two places.
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have made a provision to provide provisional ration cards to non-locals living in the UT to get subsidized ration. A huge chunk of these non-locals is getting ration from J&K and their native states also.
