Pending Aadhaar details updates push smart cards issuance to February end

Earlier, the state government have proposed to provide smart cards with all commodity details at the consumers’ fingertips from January next year. The state has a total of 2.06 crore ration cards which benefit 7.87 crore persons. However, only 4.98 crore beneficiaries have provided their Aadhaar Card details so far to their respective fair price shops. Nearly 34,776 shops have been provided with point of sale (POS) machines through which the details have been uploaded. Another 1.64 crore people registered their details through a mobile phone app.  

Nearly, 1.24 crore persons have not yet updated their details either through the fair price shops or via the mobile app so far, said a senior official in the Civil Supplies Department.  The official added, “Only 65 per cent of the work on linking of Aadhaar details with the smart cards have been completed, till now. With another 35 per cent to be worked on, the expected deadline for issuing the new cards will be pushed to the end of next February. We will start issuing the cards when the department cross 90 per cent in coverage across the state.” 

The present ration cards have been issued in 2005 and their validity expired in 2009. But the state government took recourse to the practice of sticking additional pages on the ration card itself and kept on extending the validity of the cards. Introduction of smart cards have been planned to weed out bogus cards permanently. It seems consumers in state have to stick on to the old ration cards for some more months.