CHENNAI: A. Jayaseelan was agitated to see that the public distribution system (PDS) smart card that he received after long wait does not have his younger son’s name in it.
The real shock was waiting in the next page where his elder son was mentioned as the head of the family.
“I carefully entered all the details online and still this happens. The e-seva centers that are crowded with students wanting income certificates did not give proper response. They asked me to come back in June,” said Jayaseelan.
Activist Gopalakrishnan has alleged that the staff issuing cards do not have complete knowledge about the process and are naming the first person to be the head of the family.
However, Jayaseelan said the smart card has not been activated yet and the real problems will start after it is activated.
This is not the first case where a user got disappointed. The problem of erroneous data collection has been persistent for a long time, users say and allege that the government has not taken enough steps to ensure error-free smart cards. The state government began distributing smart cards replacing ration cards from April 1 and cardholders were asked to register online.
One of the issues is the permissible size of photograph. “For the new applications, picture size cannot exceed 10 kb. This way, the photo is very blurry and unrecognisable,” said Pankaj Kumar, a student. Also, if the public miss even one document while submission, the authorities reject their application and nobody gives a proper response afterwards.
“In the smart card, full name is never mentioned. We will face a problem in the long run,” said Pankaj.
People complain that a bill is never issued in ration shops and the message confirming their transaction is received only after a day. “Most of the time, the message will include goods we did not purchase for which we have to go back again,” rued another resident.
When contacted, the officials from the Civil Supplies department said they would not like to comment on the issue. Repeated attempts to get reactions from the department failed.
