The Mark of the Beast. No Mark. No Food

AURANGABAD: After successfully introducing the thumb impression-based biometric public distribution system ( PDS) for foodgrain distribution in some fair price shops in the urban areas, the Aurangabad district collectorate will now replicate the system in villages.

Sanjeev Jadhavar, district supply officer (Aurangabad), on Saturday said the scheme would be soon introduced in 10 shops in Phulambri and five in Gangapur. "We are now looking at experimenting with select shops in the rural areas. And based on the results, we may introduce the system in all the 1,800 fair price shops in the district," he said, adding that the system will be introduced in the next 15-20 days.

In Aurangabad district, 200 shops come under the jurisdiction of the city limits and 1,600 are in the rural areas.

In August 2013, the district administration launched the first-of-its-kind system in three shops in the city. As part of the pilot project, the shopkeepers have been offering foodgrains to consumers only after confirming their identity and electronically registering the details of the transactions.

A Mumbai-based company has developed a special software for the system which creates a data bank of all the ration card holders. In the first transaction, the consumers have to register his/her thumb impression on an electronic device and furnish details. The information is being stored in a centralized data bank.

From the second transaction, the consumers will have to give thumb impressions and the system will display details of his/her foodgrain quota. The details can also be accessed from a centralized monitoring system. This will reduce chances of malpractices on the part of the fair price shopkeepers.

"It has been observed that all the ration card holders do not lift the quota of foodgrains, giving an opportunity to fair price shops to divert the remaining stock to the black market. It has also been found that the shopkeepers produce fake details of consumers to divert unclaimed foodgrains. However, the software maintains all the details leaving no scope for misuse," Jadhavar said.

He added that the district administration has provided a tab worth Rs 8,000, a thumb impression device that costs Rs 5,000 and a 3G internet connection to all three shopkeepers. They can download the software on a desktop, laptop or a smart phone and connect it with the thumb impression device.

-Source