10 lakh cardholders now under ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Almost two weeks after the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme was implemented at 135 ration shops on a pilot basis, the civil supplies and consumer protection department is all set to extend the scheme to all the ration shops in the district.
Under the scheme, cardholders could buy their monthly entitlement of ration products from any fair price shops in the country.Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had launched the scheme in the state on October 1. On the same day, the scheme was implemented at 135 ration shops in the south taluk in the district.
An officer with the district civil supply office said the ration could be bought by only a person whose name was included in the card. Earlier, ration products would be handed over to anyone who turns up at the shops with a smart ration card.
“As the software is linked to the Aadhar card database, fingerprint of the person collecting the ration at the shop should match with the fingerprint in the database. Only then, products could be given. People will have to swipe their card and give their fingerprints every month to get the ration,” the official said.
There is an exemption for elderly people, differently abled and people with learning difficulties, who, the official said, could in a letter request the tahsildar to allow their family members or neighbours to collect the ration on their behalf.
The official said they had completed the integration process at all the 1,419 ration shops in the 12 taluks in the district and they would be covered under the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme from Wednesday. The district has 10.37 lakh cardholders.
While rice is distributed for free of cost, other products, including sugar and dal, are sold at subsidized price to the residents. People from other states could avail only two products – rice, which is priced at Rs 3 per kg, and wheat, which is priced at Rs 2 per kg.
However, both the public and authorities seem to face some difficulties in implementing the system effectively. “Now, we are able to serve only 30-50 customers a day, against 150 earlier. It is mainly because of the poor network - only 2G sim cards are used in the POS machines - and difficulties in obtaining fingerprints,” the official said.
G Rajendran, state president of Tamil Nadu Ration Shop Employees’ Union, said it was important to rectify the issues to make the scheme successful. “With the scheme in place, smuggling could be reduced to almost nil and certain people, especially those belonging to the upper class, would not get the products and their share could be given to guest workers without increasing the district’s share of ration products to a larger extent.”