Aadhaar linking helps weed out 65L bogus ration cards

The linking of Aadhaar numbers with ration cards has helped the Food and Civil Supplies department to weed out 65 lakh bogus ration cards, Secretary to the department, Harsh Gupta has said. Speaking to reporters after chairing a progress review meeting here on Sunday, Gupta said that Aadhaar linking process has been completed. He said that out of the 4.10 ration card holders, 3.40 crore had been linked to Aadhaar numbers. He said that several measures initiated by the department to check pilferage in the public distribution system have helped in saving 35 metric tonnes of food grains.

Gupta said that as a matter of policy, subsidised kerosene was not being provided to LPG consumers. Though there had been an increase in the number of LPG connections, around 90 lakh families were still getting kerosene under the earlier scheme and many had not disclosed their LPG connections. According to the data available with oil marketing companies, 99 % of the households in Mysuru district have LPG connection, while majority of the houses in Bengaluru Urban and Rural have gas connections, he said.

There is no supply of subsidised kerosene in Bengaluru, he said.  He said that in order to prevent pilferage, subsidised kerosene (blue) was not being sold at the shops selling non-subsidised kerosene (white). Gupta said that the department has listed out the names of 210 people who has no gas connection to bring them under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUJ), a welfare programme of Union government, launched with the objective of providing LPG connections to families below the poverty line. While the Centre gives free LPG connection, the state government will provide them gas stove with two burners. Deputy Commissioner D Randeep, Deputy Director for Food and Civil Supplies K Rameshwarappa were present.