In what comes off as a massive crackdown on bureaucratic corruption, the Modi government has employed technology on a huge scale to identify true welfare seekers in the country. Recently, the apt use of technological intervention has resulted in the cancellation of 4.82 crore bogus ration cards in the country.
Humongous cleanup in Targeted public distribution system:
On Friday, 10th December 2021, the Union government informed the nation that judicious use of the Targeted public distribution system (TPDS) with the help of Aadhar enabled authentication system has resulted in the elimination of bogus ration cardholders in the country.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution apprised the nation that it’s the respective states and Union territories (UTs) who ultimately decide to include or exclude beneficiaries from the list.
Her statement read, “The addition and deletion of ration cards is a continuous process, wherein the States and UTs regularly review their list of ration cards beneficiaries to identify and weed out potentially ineligible, duplicate or bogus ration cards after proper verification. Accordingly, due to use of information technology for TPDS reforms, digitization of ration cards data, de-duplication process, permanent migration, deaths, identification of ineligible, duplicate and fake ration cards, etc. the States, UTs have reported the cancellation of about 4.28 crore such bogus ration cards during the period 2014 to 2021 so far,”
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Non-linking of Aadhar is not a reason for the cancellation:
Quashing all rumours spread by the opposition, she clarified that just because the ration card and Aadhar are not linked, it does not amount to the cancellation of the card. However, she also made it clear that state governments need to proactively link every ration card to an Aadhar card, albeit not forcibly, but by making people aware that linking of Aadhar is beneficial for them.
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Ration cards- a tool by illegal Bangladeshis to garner legitimacy in India:
Ration cards are official documents issued by respective state governments to mainly poor households (especially those below the poverty line) to purchase subsidised food grain from the Public Distribution System under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Before the Modi government, it was easy to get anyone in the list of ration card holders as there was virtually zero cross-verification required. Though not frequent, they are still unofficially used as a citizenship document by various illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to garner greater benefits from welfare-focused Indian states.
For 70 long years in Congress-ruled India, the Indian welfare distribution pattern was being operated under under the haze of bureaucracy. Modi government’s insistence on direct benefit transfer through linking of Aadhar with a bank account has resulted in transparency in government schemes and their functionaries. Identification of bogus ration cards is just a node in the pattern of rapidly receding bureaucratic corruption.