Now goods will be available in ration depots of Himachal Pradesh only on showing the face. symbolic photo
Chaitanya Thakur, Shimla. The government is going to make major technical changes to make the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Himachal Pradesh more transparent and corruption-free. Now to get ration in the state, beneficiaries will have to show their faces at the depot. The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department is preparing to purchase about six thousand face recognition based machines for about Rs 15 crore. At present, ration distribution in the state is done through loop machine and OTP verification, but after the implementation of the new system, face will be the main basis of identification.
19 lakh ration card holders in the state
Ration is being provided to 19 lakh ration card holders under the public distribution system through about 6300 depots in the state. About 72 lakh people in the state take cheap ration.
For this reason the decision was taken
The department has been receiving complaints of duplicate ration cards, fake beneficiaries and black marketing. To prevent these irregularities, a plan has been made to implement face authentication system. Under the new system, when a beneficiary reaches the depot to collect ration, the machine will scan his face and match it with the Aadhaar data. Ration will be issued only if the matching is successful. This will ensure that only the real beneficiary is taking his/her share of ration.
There will be transparency in PDS system
The department will install the machines in a phased manner, so that remote depots can also be connected to this system. The government believes that face recognition based ration distribution will strengthen transparency, accountability and monitoring in the PDS system and the right amount of ration will reach the needy on time.
what do officials say
Managing Director (IAS) of the State Food and Supplies Department, Ram Kumar Gautam, says that this system will prove to be effective especially in those areas where complaints of ration leakage and fake entries are more. The technology will ensure identification of genuine beneficiaries and automatically exclude ineligible ones.
Preparations are in place to stop such disturbances
After the implementation of face recognition system, the possibilities of fraud will reduce to a great extent. Many times it is seen that ration is taken in the name of dead people or the card is misused by some other person. This will stop due to face verification. Besides, a digital record of every transaction will be prepared, so that the department can easily monitor it.
such mistakes are still being made
Suppose an elderly woman in a village has a ration card, but she has been living outside for a long time. Earlier, at many places the depot operator or other person used to withdraw ration in his name through OTP. After face recognition is implemented, unless the woman herself comes to the depot to verify her face, ration will not be issued. In many cases, the same family tries to get ration twice by making duplicate ration cards at different places. In the face authentication system, the face will be linked to Aadhaar, hence the system will give an alert as soon as the data of the same person matches repeatedly. This will identify duplicate beneficiaries immediately.
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