CHENNAI: Have you received a bill on your mobile for the supplies you have not bought from the ration shop? It is probably because the shop owner or anybody who happened to glance your UFC code (unique identification number on PDS card), duplicated your public distribution system (PDS) smart card to sell the goods in the black market.
Each beneficiary of the state’s PDS has at least four to five cards under their name, mostly without their knowledge, ration shop owners say.
“There is no cap on the number of PDS smart cards a person can have. Though all of them will have the same UFC number, there is no biometric system or One-time password (OTP) to check the identity of the owner,” said social activist, V. Gopalakrishnan.
Ration shop owners say at least 200 cards are sold in three months. “There have been numerous times when people come to us asking for cards and a few of them get a couple of copies printed. Though it is apparent that the owner is fake, business is what matters to us at the end of the day,” said a ration shop owner at Nanganallur.
In one of the cases, A. Thirunavukarasu blocked his card in 2017 without even making one transaction as he was leaving for Port Blair. He complains that till date, he receives bogus bills of sugar and pulse purchase on his mobile.
In 2016, 4,90,181 lakh fake smart cards have been seized by the state government and they said 894 persons were arrested under detention laws for smuggling food commodities between 2011-16. However, no steps have been taken to improvise the authentication, so far. According to an official in the civil supplies department, 11,000 complaints of bogus bills were received in the past one-year.
“To curb the issue, we have introduced a new helpline this week. A consumer can directly forward the bogus bill to 9980904040 and the department within a week will take action. Regarding the biometric system, a proposal has been sent to the state government and it is likely to come into force by May, this year,” said an official.
Consumers upset over blocked ration cards and unhelpful staff
Despite having PDS smart cards, several people in the city are unable to buy supplies as the civil supplies department has blocked them to make corrections. However, a few persons complain that even after the missing details have been filled, their cards remain blocked.
“The ration shop owner, last week refused to give me goods as the details were not filled in English. After the issue was rectified by the Common Service Centre (CSC) on the same day, he said I would not receive supplies this month as my card is blocked,” complained T.Chandrasekhar, a resident of MGR Nagar.
Beneficiaries also rue that the helpline number is seldom answered and authorities pay no heed to the issue.
When contacted, an official said that they are currently working on unblocking the cards and to hasten the grievance redressal process residents can go regional taluk supply or AC’s office to get the details changed.
