49% progress achieved on Ration Card-Aadhaar seeding: Zulfkar Ali

SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 19:  Around 49 percent of beneficiary ration cards are seeded with their Aadhaar, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Information Department Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali was informed today.

The information was revealed during a review meeting chaired by the Minister to get update about the implementation of electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS) in the State.

During the meeting, the Minister was informed from 21August 2017 till 18th of this month 74,759 ration cards were seeded with their Aadhaar cards. Out of this 52,423 were seeded in Jammu, while 22,336 were seeded in Kashmir division, the Minister was informed.

The meeting further revealed since the inception of process of aadhar seeding with ration cards has started in the State 13,86,705 ration cards have been seeded till yesterday. Out of the achieved target, 6,02,705 cards are seeded in Jammu division, while in Kashmir the number is 7,84,000 taking the tally of seeding to around 49 in the State.

To expedite the process, the Minister issued the directions to connect the Aadhaar-ration card seeding with the concerned officer’s increment. He said the annual increment of only those officers should be released who would achieve their targets within stipulated time frame.

During the meeting, the Minister was also informed under Geographical Information System (GIS) out of 6583 sale centres and Fair Price Shops, the department so far has captured 3815. The instructions were issued to bring the rest under the system by the end of this month.

Taking strong note for failing to address the public grievances within the allocated time, the Minister directed to put an immediate stop on the salaries of assistant directors from north and south Kashmir. He further directed the Director Kashmir to hold an inquiry in this regard and to ensure in future the grievances are resolved well within the stipulated time.

Getting an update about the ration card distribution in the State, the Minister was informed that so far in Kashmir division out of 14 lakh ration cards around 12 lakh have been distributed, while 5,40,000 ration cards were distributed in Jammu division. He directed to complete the process by the end of this month. 

Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali also directed the technical experts to hold training programmes regarding supply chain management on three consecutive days later this month on 21th, 22nd and 23rd.

The meeting was informed that data entry operators have been recruited across the State, except for Leh, where no one had applied for the job.

The meeting was informed that re-verification of Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) list is going on and will be completed by the end of next month.

Secretary FCS&CA Shafiq Ahmad Raina, Director FCS&CA Jammu R A Inqalabi, Director FCS&CA Kashmir Nissar Ahmad Wani, Additional Secretary FCS&CA Arun Kishor Kotwal and other concerned were presented in the meeting.