Parliament panel sceptical of Food Ministry’s claim of ‘100% digitisation’ of ration cards and Aadhaar seeding

Expressing scepticism over digitisation data furnished by the Food Ministry on ration cards, supply chain and Aadhaar seeding, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has urged the department concerned to cross-check with States to establish their authenticity.

In its report tabled in Parliament recently, the committee, headed by JC Divakar Reddy (Telugu Desam Party), while noting the importance of expeditious digitisation of database for better targeting of food subsidies, said it was “sceptical of the 100 per cent achievements shown in respect of FPS (fair price shops), Godown data and Ration Card data furnished to them in respect of many of the States.”

The committee found that “progress of work relating to Aadhaar Card Seeding is almost zero in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, UP, West Bengal and in Lakshadweep. In big States like Madhya Pradesh, it is as low as 18 per cent whereas in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, it is just only one per cent.”

The report urged the Centre that the “authenticity of the data furnished by States be cross-checked with the ground situation available in the States, especially in respect of States like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat etc.”

The Food Ministry, in a release dated November 3, had said that the beneficiary data base had been digitised in all the 36 States/Union Territories, wherein, information was available right up to beneficiary level and was in the public domain, adding that “online allocation of foodgrains is being done in 28 States/UTs, and the entire foodgrain supply chain has been computerised in 18 States/UTs”. It also said that “100 per cent linkage of Ration Cards with Aadhaar, which is 71 per cent at the moment, will be achieved.”

On computerisation of supply chain management, the Parliamentary committee noted that it had been implemented in only three-four States while some others were progressing slowly, and recommend that the department take up the job in consultation with all State governments/UTs “on top priority with a fixed timeline.”

It also observed financial performance under the scheme as “far from satisfactory.”

While out of the Central share of ₹489.37 crore, so far only ₹261.51 crore had been released to the States during the last three financial years — 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 — including for 2015-16 (up to May 31, 2015), the cumulative expenditure reported for this period was a meagre amount of ₹56.49 crore “implying at the same time that the States have not been able to spend about ₹205.02 crore.”

Though funds were released to 27 States/UTs, 14 States have not shown/reported any expenditure for the above period, said the committee, adding that “this speaks volumes of the performance of this vital scheme aimed to prevent leakages, diversions in supply of foodgrains”.

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