In 2 months, your ration card will have a barcode

The device is like a smart card that stores information about the head of each family as well as his thumb impression. All fair price shops will be issued a card reader, in consultation with the respective tehsildars.

The person going to the fair price shop has to produce his card, which will be read by the card reader and his details shown. This will ensure that the correct quantity is issued to the person.

A contract was recently signed between Spanco Telesystems and Solutions STS and the Food and Civil Supplies Ministry for rolling out the biometric bar coded ration cards. Spanco will be undertaking the project for the entire State, with Pune and Mumbai being the priorities. In April, The Indian Express was the first to highlight the novel project.

According to officials, over 10 lakh laminated cards will be distributed in the city. 8220;The biometric system is being introduced to keep a check on bogus ration cards, which are rampant across the State.8221;

Spanco Telesystems Vice-President Ravi Bhatnagar said that data collection in the city has started and the company would be ready to issue the cards by November. 8220;The district collectorate is helping us with the data and we should be right on schedule,8221; he assured.

Pune will be the first city, followed by Mumbai, to have these biometric bar coded ration cards. Additional Collector Vasant Vaidya said that the laminated cards will ensure transparency and accountability in the Public Distribution System PDS.

The company has a target of issuing 1.8 crore laminated ration cards in the State. Its Associate Vice-President Tushar Mohanty said that a site survey of Pune city is currently on and a functional requisite study, too, is being carried out.

A Global Positional System will help chart the route of civil supplies from the Food Corporation of India to the respective district godowns and the bar code will bring about accountability. The project, which will be under public-private partnership basis, will involve 475 officers of the Food and Civil Supplies Department while more than 1 lakh ration shops in the State will issue the cards to citizens.

Mohanty said that the huge effort is aimed at ensuring that the material reaches the target citizens without any pilferage 8212; with state-of-art technology helping in effective monitoring of goods movement. MIS reports will be generated and there will be forecasting for various months as an added feature.

8220;The scheme is designed to ensure that the right beneficiary gets the desired amount of foodgrains and other benefits.8221;

Bhatnagar informed that the system will be implemented across the state in three years. 8220;We are looking at covering approximately 10,6740 fair price shops, 354 supply offices, 33 district supply offices, five regional offices and 44 ration offices in the State.8221;