Ghost’ cards are widely prevalent in Odisha as the State Government is unable to delete around 2 lakh bogus ration cards indentified after the digitisation of the ration card database. Moreover, the ‘ghost’ of diversion still haunts the State’s public distribution system (PDS) as fair price shop (FPS) automation takes its own time to see a complete automation rollout.
Significantly, the Justice Wadhwa Commission, appointed by the Supreme Court in 2010, has submitted that Odisha has around 2.5 lakh ‘ghost’ ration cards. The State Government also stumbled on to over 2 lakh fake ration cards during digitisation of ration card database.
Curiously, Odisha has failed to document any deletion of bogus cards since 2012-2016 despite letters to district Collectors. However, the Union Government’s data show deletion of 1.6 crore fake cards in the country during the period of 2012-16 with Odisha’s neighbouring States Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand taking the lead. West Bengal has deleted over 80 lakh fake cards and Chhattisgarh around 9.5 lakh during 2012-16.
Why the fumbleIJ According to a senior official in the Food and Civil Supplies (F&CS) Department, the State administration fumbles fearing a possible loss of the ruling party’s voter base.
Along with bogus cards, PDS diversion also haunts the State’s PDS system acutely. And installing Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices in its fair price shops to checkmate diversion is progressing at a snail’s pace.
According to the latest data with F&CS Department, PoS devices could be installed in mere 0.19 per cent or only 32 of the total over 16,000 FPSs in the State. On the contrary, States like Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have respectively seen installation in around 100 per cent and 80 per cent FPSs. This assumes significance when Odisha is now a National Food Security Act (NFSA) implementing State.
Interestingly, the Odisha Government has set a target date of March 31, 2017 to instal PoS in only 56 per cent of total FPSs in the State. However, the Government claims that this 56 per cent shops will cater to 90 per cent of the State’s NFSA beneficiaries.
How important is PoSIJ It is a one-point solution to bogus beneficiaries and a large-scale diversion at the FPS level. Along with tracking transactions at FPSs, PoS would ensure ration delivery to true beneficiaries via biometric identification or through One-Time-Pins (OTP).
Now, a FPS maintain a sale register containing the serial number of the card against the name of a beneficiary, who has to give a thumb impression or sign it after collection of PDS item and where veracity of thumb mark and signature remains uncertain. But a PoS-installed FPS would ensure validation, and even when delivered to such a beneficiary, the PoS would tag it as ‘unverified’ delivery.
However, according to Right to Food activists, the Odisha Government has not clearly mandated any penalty for malfunctioning of PoS under the Service level Agreement (SlA) with the vendor. “As many PDS dealers have vested interest in malfunctioning of PoS devices, the Government should make provisions of penalty,” the activists reasoned.