Karnataka will aim to issue 1 million new ration cards over the next six months, Food Minister Rizwan Arshad said, in a move intended to bring eligible families currently outside the public distribution system under its coverage.
Speaking to journalists in New Delhi on Friday, Arshad said many families had been left out of the ration-card system. He said cards would be issued to eligible households, while ration cards held by ineligible families would be cancelled in line with Central government criteria.
The minister’s announcement links expansion of coverage with a parallel effort to clean up beneficiary records. The proposed cancellation of ineligible cards is expected to be carried out according to the standards prescribed by the Central government, although the statement did not specify the number of cards that may be reviewed or cancelled.
Arshad also announced that beneficiaries will soon be able to complete e-KYC through facial authentication using a mobile phone. The facility is expected to be introduced within a few days and is intended to reduce the need for members of the public to visit fair-price shops for the verification process.
Mobile-based facial authentication would shift part of the verification process away from fair-price shops and allow beneficiaries to complete e-KYC remotely. The minister did not provide details on the technology platform, the process for resolving failed authentication attempts or the safeguards that will apply to beneficiaries who cannot complete verification through a mobile device.
The minister also said the tender invited for distributing Indira food kits to beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Below Poverty Line categories had been cancelled. The proposed kits were to be provided along with the five kilograms of rice under the Anna Bhagya programme and were intended to include pulses, cooking oil and other items from the state’s share of supplies.
According to the minister, the National Food Security Act framework provides 10 kilograms of rice for each beneficiary in the Antyodaya Anna Yojana and BPL categories. The Indira food kit proposal was designed to distribute additional items alongside the rice supplied under the state’s programme.
Arshad said the tender process was not scientific and did not fix responsibility for the companies that would distribute the kits. He said the decision to cancel it was also intended to allow manufacturers, including companies producing cooking oil, to participate in the tender process.
The minister did not announce a new tender schedule or specify when the revised procurement process would begin. The six-month ration-card target, the rollout of mobile e-KYC and the next steps on the Indira food-kit tender will determine how the announcement is implemented across Karnataka’s food distribution network.
