JOIN USChandigarh's 'smart' way out of mess
Here, age old booklet-shaped ration cards are being replaced by electronic smart cards. So far, over 8000 beneficiaries have been issued the smart cards. The changeover intends to streamline the functioning of the scheme to ensure improvised and efficient service delivery to facilitate beneficiaries. Here’s how.
The beneficiaries who have smart ration cards will require visiting dedicated point of sale (POS) terminals set up in all the fair price shops in the city. The identity of the smart card holder is established by biometric impressions on inserting the card in the POS terminal.
Once that’s done, the beneficiary would be able to know the exact ration allocation done so far and also the remaining balance in his account. Since the information is digitised, chances of manipulation in the date that existed in the manual system, including the per month entitlement of the card holder and the actual distribution, will be done away with. The smart card with a 32Kb capacity would hold biometric data of three family members of the card holder. A senior official said, “We are holding camps at various places in the city to provide smart cards. The system is effective and functionally convenient. It will end pilferage and losses”.
P V Kavle, Director, Food and Supplies, said that the previous manual system had inherent anomalies. Pilferage took place essentially at two levels. At the first level there were loads of cases where card holders never used ration cards and their cards were (mis)used by non-beneficiaries who were in possession of the card. At the other level, “fake” accounts were registered and excess withdrawal used to take place at fair price shops. “With the electronic system, all this will come to an end,” he said. Eventually, the system will be monitored online, which officials say will give an idea of the average distribution of products at fair price shops and number of actual visiting beneficiaries each month.
A unique feature of the Chandigarh Model is the re-submission of fingerprint by the resident after allocation has been issued to him by the fair price shop owner to confirm the completion of the transaction”.
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