Mumbai, (The Hindu): Claiming that over 21.82 lakh beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS) have been left without ration services as their Aadhaar number could not be linked with their ration cards due to technical glitches, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday said the compulsion of interlinking the two cards should be revoked as per the Supreme Court order.

“From the documents that have been procured by us as recent as April 2018, close to 21.82 lakh beneficiaries have had their ration cards deregistered, simply because their cards were not linked to their Aadhaar. Currently, these people have no way of getting any ration supply. This is contrary to what the Central government says and the government rules. The Fadnavis government wants to keep 21.82 lakh Mumbaikars hungry,” said Mr. Nirupam. This, he said, is in contravention to a Supreme Court Order which states that an Aadhaar card cannot be made compulsory to avail of government welfare benefits.

According to the Mumbai Congress chief, the machines given to ration shops do not work. “Those who have registered and linked their Aadhaar with ration cards are also facing acute problems. This is because there is an EPOS machine that has been installed at ration shops which in most cases doesn’t work and it is mandatory for every ration card holder to use the machine in order to buy rations,” he said.

Alleging the supply of faulty machines, Mr. Nirupam said ration shop owners in Thane were returning them to the government. “There are issues such as network connectivity; some machines do not work, and thumb prints do not match. At many places the outlets issuing Aadhaar cards have been shut,” he said.

Mr. Nirupam added that the decision to mandatorily link Aadhaar with ration cards should be revoked immediately.