All ration card records digitized, claims government

All the ration card records in the country have been digitized as a "revolutionary" step towards making Public Distribution System free of pilferage and corruption, the government said on Friday.

"Almost 100 percent ration cards have been digitised and over 42 percent of them have been even linked with Aadhaar cards to keep electronic record of allocation of food grains to the beneficiaries through more than 77,000 ration shops," said an official statement, quoting Union Minister of Consumer affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan.

The minister noted that about 54 crore people have been receiving wheat and rice at subsidised rates of Rs.2 a kg and Rs.3 a kg, respectively, after the implementation of the Food Security Act in 27 states.

Highlighting the initiatives taken by his ministry during the last 20 months, Paswan said that all the 36 states and union teritorries have an online redressal of PDS grievances and toll free number for beneficiaries.

He said huge paddy procurement has been made during the ongoing Kharif season ensuring that more farmers than ever get the benefit of minimum support price fixed by the government.