Biometric Ration Cards for North East

The central government is working on introducing biometric ration cards in the northeastern states to weed out bogus cards and curb corruption in the distribution of subsidized food commodities. “We are looking at the new technology to computerize the public distribution system (PDS) to ensure it is corruption free,” Union Food Secretary Alka Sirohi said. The new innovation is aimed at curbing diversion of rice and wheat and to strengthen targeted public distribution system (TPDS), as according to the evaluation study by ORG Centre for Social Research, New Delhi, the diversion of food grain is high in northeastern states, especially in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
However, officials from these states rejected the findings during the meeting of food secretaries of the northeastern states.