Firm roped in for seeding Aadhaar with ration cards of 5.5 cr beneficiaries

KOLKATA: The state Food & Supplies department has engaged Webel Technology Ltd (WTL) for seeding Aadhaar and biometric authentication with ration cards. WTL will take two months for execution of the work after the work order is awarded and will cover 5.5 crore beneficiaries.

"At least 40 per cent of the beneficiaries already have their Aadhaar seeding and biometric authentication against ration cards. The remaining beneficiaries will come under this purview. It will bring transparency in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and will ensure that ration for the actual beneficiary. It will also help us in weeding out bogus ration cards,"state Food & Supplies minister, Rathin Ghosh, said.

WTL has been asked to make a plan to achieve 100 per cent coverage and share the same with the District Magistrates and Municipal Commissioner (in case of Kolkata) and other concerned district officials.

As per directions, house-to-house visits of the beneficiaries will be done twice and then locality-wise camps should be held after proper intimidation to the beneficiaries. The camps can be arranged in schools or ICDS centres through coordination with the local BDO or panchayat.

The rate fixed by the state government is Rs 5.78 per ration card and a grace period of 7 days will be allowed if the work is not executed within 60 days after issuance of the work order. After that the rates will get reduced by 5 per cent for the ration cards seeded during the next 15 days and further by 10 per cent after that.

A week back, the Supreme Court had directed the Bengal government to complete Aadhaar seeding with ration cards for implementation of One Nation One Ration Card to ensure that the migrant workers face no difficulty in lifting their ration. Apart from Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Delhi are the other places where Aadhaar seeding with ration cards is still pending.