Punjab Govt to provide smart ration cards to 36 lakh NFSA families

Punjab Government would provide smart ration cards to as many as 36 lakh National Food Security Act (NFSA) families. At the same time, the ration distribution process has also been made computerized to bring in transparency.

“This will ensure that the families entitled under NFSA scheme get the entitled benefit and this will also help the Government to deliver the services effectively and with full transparency,” said the state Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Sunday.

Giving detail regarding feature of Smart Ration Cards, Ashu said that these will be used for withdrawing the food grains from Fair Price Shops (FPS) through e-PoS machines without carrying any additional document. “The Smart Ration Card will be swiped on the e-PoS machine to fetch family details, after which the bio-metrics authentication of the family member will be done to withdraw the food grains. The Cards can also be used for intra-state portability,” he said.