Chandigarh: Haryana Food and Supplies
Minister Mahender Pratap Singh Thursday said that about 56 lakh eligible families of the state would be issued Smart Ration
Cards under various categories.
A Smart Card project, which is a pilot project of the
Central Government, has been introduced only in Haryana and
Union Territory of Chandigarh, Singh said replying to a
calling attention notice submitted by MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra
in the ongoing session of Haryana Assembly, here.
Singh said that the state government is committed to
streamlining the working of the Public Distribution System in
the state.
The Smart Card project provides a technology solution
to the problems of leakage and diversion in the PDS.
The total project cost is over Rs 137 crore, he said,
adding the ground work on the project has already been
initiated.
In the first phase of the project, four blocks Ambala,
Sirsa, Sonipat and Gharaunda have been selected on pilot
basis. The field camps were organized in these four blocks to
capture the fingerprint impressions of all the 10 fingers of
all family members above 12 years of age.
In addition, iris data of family members above five
years of age was also captured for de-duplication. The unique
feature of the Smart Card project in Haryana is its
integration with Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI), he informed the House.
Till date 6.40 lakh residents? data has been digitized,
out of which 5.80 lakh residents have been enrolled and 4.32
lakh Unique Identification (UID) numbers have been issued.
Complete rollout of the project is expected to be
completed by June 2013, he said.
The smart ration cards will have different color
strips for different categories of families (Pink for Antodaya
Anna Yojana (AAY), Yellow for Below Poverty Line and Green for
Above Poverty Line).
Fingerprint of three authorized members of the family
who usually go for drawing essential commodities will be
stored in the chip of the card and essential commodities would
be issued after electronic authentication of authorized
recipient.
Smart ration cards will be issued after complete
biometric de-duplication by UIDAI which will ensure that the
menace of bogus ation cards is removed once for all, he said.
In addition, monthly entitlements of essential
commodities will also be stored in the chip of smart card, he
said.
The Minister also informed the House that as per
survey conducted by the Rural Development and Urban Local
Bodies Departments Haryana, there are 12.97 lakh BPL families
in the State.
PTI
