The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, will launch the Aadhaar-based smart card enrolment scheme in Maheswaram village of Ranga Reddy district on Friday.

Maheswaram will be first mandal in the country to use Aadhaar-based biometric authentication with smart cards. These will help in issuing commodities through the public distribution system (PDS), according to Mr D. Sridhar Babu, State Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Babu said that the objective of the smart card is to ensure that the right person gets PDS commodities and this would ensure there is no diversion and withdrawal by others. With this, the distribution of PDS items would be made through smart cards issued under the Aadhaar programme.

The card holders have to enrol themselves for Aadhaar cards where iris and finger prints are captured. This data is transmitted to the UIDAI for generation of Aadhaar number and issue of letter by them. The smart card will have the encrypted data including Aadhaar and ration card numbers of the card holders and family members and their entitlement. One of the members of the family whose finger prints have been captured can visit the fair price shop where point of sale authentication facility is available. This would facilitate issue of commodities as per entitlement.

The smart card use is not restricted to withdrawal of ration alone but also for NREGA payments, scholarships, Arogyasri benefits, pensions, housing and self-help groups and even LPG distribution.

Mr Babu said that the Aadhaar smart card enrolment is being taken up in the first phase in seven districts in the State.

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