(a) whether the ration shops have started using Bio-metric Identification;
(b) the details of the number of people who took rations during the last three months before the introduction of Aadhaar Bio-Metric Identification and the changes in the number of such people after the introduction of Aadhaar Bio-metric Identifications; and
(c) the number of fake ration card holders detected after the introduction of Aadhaar Bio-metric identification, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
(SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY)
(a) & (b): 2.95 lakh out of 5.26 lakh Fair Price Shops (FPSs) across the country have ePoS devices and facility for biometric identification has been enabled in most of the ePoS devices. However, Central Government has issued instructions dated 24-10-2017 that no beneficiary/household should be denied of entitled foodgrains even if their biometric authentication is not successful. ePoS devices have been installed in different States at different point of time and in some States, the process is still on or yet to be started. Given the uneven pace of Aadhaar seeding and installation of ePoS devices in States/UTs, foodgrains are being distributed electronically through ePoS devices at the FPSs including biometric authentication and non-biometric authentication. As per the latest figure available, about 50% of ePoS based transactions were based on bio-metric authentication.
(c): As reported by States/UTs, a total of 2.75 crore bogus/ineligible ration cards have been deleted/cancelled during the years 2013 to 2017.
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