Despite the government’s measures to issue smart cards in lieu of the old ration cards across the State, over 80,000 card holders are yet to upload the photos of the family head and many have not fulfilled some of the mandatory family details. This has resulted in backlog in printing and distribution of smart cards, said District Supply Officer P. Jayarani here on Friday.
Ms. Jayarani told The Hindu that the department was conducting special camps on the second Saturday of every month to update details of the card holders in all the Taluk Supply Offices.
Of the total number 9,91,010 ration cards in Coimbatore district (53,243 Anthyodya and 3,136 police, 247 ANP cards - Annapoorna cards for senior citizens), 8,17,740 smart cards were received so far in 7 batches. Of these, 6.80 lakh cards were distributed well before Deepavali.
Fresh batch of 1,29,992 smart cards were received by the district on October 17 and they were being distributed to the beneficiaries through the 1,420 ration shops including 297 part-time and 6 mobile shops, she added.
Card holders, who are yet to upload their photos, could utilise the special camps. They could also submit their passport size photos to the salesmen of the ration shops concerned after writing their card number behind the photo. The ease of self uploading photos through online was withdrawn after a few malpractices took place elsewhere, which resulted in wrong photographs appearing on the cards.
Only the new cards were printed and supplied to the districts from the centralised facility in Chennai. Card holders could obtain new cards if they lost it and could make corrections through the Common Service Centres or the e-Seva centres established by the government in all the taluk headquarters.
However, people can draw their ration from the PDS shops using their old cards till they receive the smart cards.
Aadhaar seeding
Almost 95.26 % of the card holders seeded their Aadhaar numbers with the ration cards and the department was taking measures to seed the left over cards as early as possible, the DSO said.
The district was getting 1,530 metric tonnes of rice, 1,095 metric tonnes of sugar, 950 tonnes of tood dal and 540 kilo litres of kerosene for PDS and there was no short supply of essentials, Ms. Jayarani added.
Ms. Jayarani told The Hindu that the department was conducting special camps on the second Saturday of every month to update details of the card holders in all the Taluk Supply Offices.
Of the total number 9,91,010 ration cards in Coimbatore district (53,243 Anthyodya and 3,136 police, 247 ANP cards - Annapoorna cards for senior citizens), 8,17,740 smart cards were received so far in 7 batches. Of these, 6.80 lakh cards were distributed well before Deepavali.
Fresh batch of 1,29,992 smart cards were received by the district on October 17 and they were being distributed to the beneficiaries through the 1,420 ration shops including 297 part-time and 6 mobile shops, she added.
Card holders, who are yet to upload their photos, could utilise the special camps. They could also submit their passport size photos to the salesmen of the ration shops concerned after writing their card number behind the photo. The ease of self uploading photos through online was withdrawn after a few malpractices took place elsewhere, which resulted in wrong photographs appearing on the cards.
Only the new cards were printed and supplied to the districts from the centralised facility in Chennai. Card holders could obtain new cards if they lost it and could make corrections through the Common Service Centres or the e-Seva centres established by the government in all the taluk headquarters.
However, people can draw their ration from the PDS shops using their old cards till they receive the smart cards.
Aadhaar seeding
Almost 95.26 % of the card holders seeded their Aadhaar numbers with the ration cards and the department was taking measures to seed the left over cards as early as possible, the DSO said.
The district was getting 1,530 metric tonnes of rice, 1,095 metric tonnes of sugar, 950 tonnes of tood dal and 540 kilo litres of kerosene for PDS and there was no short supply of essentials, Ms. Jayarani added.