Smart ration card scheme to be launched in Pb in June: Minister

Aadhaar-enabled smart ration card scheme is all set to be launched in Punjab in June, state minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said today.

The food and civil supplies minister said efforts were being made to minimize diversion, leakage, pilferage and bring transparency in the targeted public distribution system (TDPS) and to ensure that eligible beneficiaries get their entitled quota.

The state government initiated distribution of wheat to eligible beneficiaries through Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices. At present 35,26,775 families comprising nearly 1.37 crore individuals are covered under TPDS, he said.

Till date, 98.24 per cent families and 95.26 per cent individual beneficiaries on the portal have seeded with their Aadhaar numbers which will decimate the probability of bogus/ghost beneficiaries, Ashu said.

The entire supply chain right from the wheat procurement from mandis, its transfer to godowns, thereafter its transportation to fair price shops and its distribution to the beneficiaries will be tracked on state transparency portal, the minister said, adding public distribution will be Aadhaar enabled through ePoS devices using biometrics.

He said the state government has made available weighing scales for accurate measures through Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) a public sector undertaking.