Andhra Pradesh government to plug PDS leakages with biometrics

GUNTUR: When the Andhra Pradesh government decided to go hi-tech in distributing essential commodities to low-income consumers two years ago, it wasn’t an easy task. The project it undertook then was to digitise the targeted public distribution system, from tracking the stocks that reach the fair price shops to how much quantity a consumer has bought.Now, in all the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh, people who rely on ration card supplies to cook daily meals, can access their allotted rice, sugar, daal and wheat flour with an assurance of transparency.

he much-lauded biometric ration card system is believed to be fool proof and expected to bring the public distribution system (PDS) in tune with the digital era. However, ironically, the feedback from the ground indicates that it is rejecting the poor and the impoverished it was intended to benefit.Some of the beneficiaries met Civil Supplies Minister P Pulla Rao and drew his attention to the problem. 
They said that the biometric authentication system installed at the public distribution system (PDS) outlets failed to establish the identity of many genuine beneficiaries, mostly workers, as their daily grind in the agricultural fields, construction sites or as domestic help have eroded the lines on their thumb resulting in distorted impressions.

The Minister conducted surprise checks at fair price shops in Guntur recently. 
Speaking on the occasion, he said that the rate of rejection was low and such people were being allowed to draw their quota of ration.He said, earlier, there were complaints from consumers that they were being cheated when it comes to the weight of the commodities. Also, irregular shop timings, travel involved in reaching the allotted fair price shop along with poor cooperation of the dealer were noticed.

“Now with the end-to-end digitisation, all a consumer has to do is walk to the nearest fair price shop. Through biometric authentication linked with Aadhaar (unique identity number), they can collect commodities which are weighed digitally. All the information is fed in our system which can be tracked anytime and does not leave any scope for pilfering,” he said.Admitting that there have been some initial loopholes, Pulla Rao said that the department is now working on fixing them.

 “Sometimes finger authentication fails because of the nature of work that daily wage labourers are involved in. We have introduced iris authentication system in all shops now. Also there are times when the data server and the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) server is down. We are now looking at strengthening the network or take it offline where it is not possible to do so. In case digital authentication fails, the consumers would have to reach the village level officer for physical authentication,” he added.