Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Feb 26: It is learnt that the food department has completed the process of linking ration cards to Adhar cards to the extent of 99.9 percent. Through this process, about 50 lac ration cards have lost their existence and the state government has saved around Rs 100 crore, sources stated.

The decision to link ration cards with Adhar had been taken to plug leakage and bring transparency in operations. The state has completed linking of 99.9 percent cards with Adhar numbers. The centre had ordered for linking of ration cards with Adhar in September 2017.

The cancelled cards fall in different categories like same family having two different cards at two places, cards issued on the basis of false address and fake documents etc. Cancellation of cards will also affect Arogya Karnataka scheme. Under this scheme, every card holder has been provided with health insurance cover of two lac rupees. Cancellation of 50 lac cards amounts to saving of Rs 100 crore. The insurance amount under the central government's Ayushman Bharat scheme is five lac rupees, and money saved through card cancellation under this scheme is much higher, officials confess.

Food department commissioner, T H M Kumar, said that 99.9 percent Adhar linking has been done and ration items are also been issued to about 30,000 differently abled beneficiaries who do not have hands, fingers etc even though their cards are not linked to Adhar.

In the country as a whole, 2.75 crore ration cards have been deleted due to Adhar linking. Highest number of fake ration cards were found from uttar Pradesh (68.8 lac), with West Bengal standing second with 66.13 lac deleted ration cards. Karnataka, which is placed third, has cancelled 50 lac cards, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of total 1.44 crore ration cards existing in the state.