Centre Says 19.5 Crore Ration Cards Digitised, Process Complete

Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Wednesday said that the digitization of ration cards has been completed in all states/UTs and about 19.5 crore ration cards are available on the transparency portal of respective states/UTs.

Jyoti stated this in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, said a press release by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.
A statement showing state/UT-wise progress of Aadhaar seeding in ration card was also provided.

99 per cent of the total 19.5 crore ration cards under NFSA have already been seeded with an Aadhaar number (i.e. at least one member of the household). States/UTs have been given time upto September 30, 2022, to complete the Aadhaar seeding of the remaining ration cards.

For effective implementation and bringing transparency to Public Distribution System (PDS), the government has implemented a scheme – “End-to-end Computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) Operations”.

Under this scheme, various activities were carried out such as digitization of ration cards/beneficiary and other databases, online allocation, computerization of supply-chain management, setting up of transparency portal and grievance redressal mechanism, etc.

Besides, automation of fair price shops (FPS) had also been done which involves installation of an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device at FPS for authentication of beneficiaries and electronic capturing of transaction data. About 5.32 lakh fair price shops out of a total of 5.33 lakh across the country have been automated so far. (ANI)