Nearly 1 crore 14 lakh ration cards have been deactivated in West Bengal over the past eight months according to the sources in the government – leaving the PDS network in the state in a shaky state.
There seem to be two reasons behind these massive deactivations. First, the verification of the thumb impression in the biometric system seems to have been failing in the point of sale machine – commonly known as e-POS. Secondly, following the linkage of the Aadhaar of the users with their ration cards, it has become impossible to have multiple ration cards under one name.
According to the sources from the state rationing department, many true consumers of the rationing system are also finding it difficult to get their thumb impressions matched.
Biswambhar Basu of the Joint Forum of West Bengal Ration Dealers told NewsClick: “Every entry is biometrically judged in the e-POS machine. In many cases, they do not match. If the thumb impression does not match, then an OTP is received on the mobile phone of the consumer. Many dealers are being forced to give ration based on the OTP. But the rationing
— source newsclick.in | Sandip Chakraborty | 05 Jun 2022