Plan to integrate UID, ration card

New card can be read at any fair-price shop through a machine which will then match the fingerprints of the beneficiary to weed out fakes

The Maharashtra government is working on an ambitious plan to integrate the existing ration cards with the UID-Aadhar cards. It has begun working on trials of thebiometric ration cards to curb incidences of bogus cards. Biometric ration cards would not just weed out bogus cards, but with these cards, the government would be able to track down the supplies and stores of the food provided to shops. "The biggest advantage will be that you will be able to go and buy the quota of food from any fair-price shop and will not be restricted to one. If you feel the shopkeeper in your area is being unfair to you, you can always switch to the shop in the neighboring village. The existing ration card system limits citizens to one shop," Ranjit Kamble, minister of state for food and civil supplies told DNA. "The trials have already begun to plug loopholes of all kinds in the system. The UID cards are being made simultaneously. Once the cards are ready, this system shall be introduced in a parallel manner," he said. "This will also help to cut down red-tape and there will be no need to change the ration card, every time you change the address as one would have to do at present as the biometric card will have data specific to the citizen," added Kamble. A senior official said that the biometric cards are one step ahead of the computerisation programme. "Biometric cards will be a big help and is much better that just digitising data. It will help the government to have a database at one single place," he added. "Biometric cards will include unique customer-specific date like retina identification, finger-prints and such personal data that will ensure that the food is being claimed by the person it is intended for. It is a unique plan and Maharashtra would be among the foremost states to do so," he added. A senior food ministry official said a biometric ration card would be different from a regular one. It would have barcoded details of the beneficiary, with a picture of the head of the family. The card can be read at any ration shop through a machine that will then be matched with the fingerprint details of the beneficiary to eliminate duplication or misuse. The Union food ministry also has subsequent plans to integrate details furnished for biometric ration cards into data available with state and district level warehouses of the Food Corporation of India and state governments.