Tamilnadu
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today announced that the validity of the
existing family cards for purchase of commodities under the Special
Public Distribution System (UPDS) was extended for one more year.
An official release here said since it would take time for issuance of bio-metric-based Smart Family cards, the tenure of the existing cards has been extended for another one year till 31 December, 2012. |
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The
release said the State government has been ensuring food security to
the people through the the Special PDS which was being implemented in a
successful manner in the State.
The validity of the existing family cards would expire on 31 December this year. It said family cards were now being issued without any unique mechanism to identify duplication of members in more than one place. 'There were registration of members in family cards in more than one place which results in duplication of members as well as issue of bogus ration cards', it said. With a view to eliminate this serious problems, the government has proposed to replace the existing family cards in circulation with bio-metric based smart family cards. The release said 'Director of census operations under the National Population Registry is conducting bio-metric capturing of 10 finger prints and Iris of citizens to issue unique identification number'. After completion of thsi process of bio-metric capturing, it has been proposed to adopt the data for issue of bio-metric smart family cards. 'The advantage is that since the data will be subjected to de-duplication, duplication of members and bogus cards will be eliminated', it said, adding, since this would take time, the government has decided to extend the usage of present ration cards by one year. |