Roopa Lall
Port Blair, June 20: At Rangat Civil Supplies Department office, one can see long queue of people these days for linking Aadhaar card with their Ration Card. As per sources nearly 4500 such linking is pending in alone Rangat Zone, under which nearly 14 Panchayat comes.
At present in a day whenever there is network the Civil Supplies Department is able to link nearly 150 to 200 Aadhaar Cards per day while other are given next date. People from Kadamtala and other remote Islands are alleging harassment for this delay.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Director of Civil Supplies and Consumers Affair, Mr. Navlendra Singh, he said that the Department have been requesting the public for the past one and a half years to link up Aadhaar with Ration card but the beneficiaries were not taking keen interest in linking. “We are providing dedicated counter facilities to link the ration card with Aadhaar. The Ministry itself says that if a person does not link the Aadhaar, the subsidy will be stopped, in such situation, we have to take a decision,” the Director said.
He said that the Department will only be able to provide ration to those who have linked the Aadhaar.
He said that as per public they are facing huge network issue because of which they are not able to link ration card with Aadhaar. “But the network can be bad for two to four days, but not for 365 days, we have been requesting public for the last one and a half years, but people are not listening,” he said.
He said that Aadhaar linking is compulsory to get ration, otherwise the subsidy will be closed from the ministry. The Director also alleged that many residents of the region do not have any kind of identity proof which is making things more difficult. “For next two months department will issue ration on production of any kind of identity proof but after that people without proper identity proof will not get subsidy,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Subrata Basu, a social worker of Kadamatala area has urged the Administration to open more counters for linking Aadhaar with Ration Card for remote villagers as nearly 4500 such cases are pending and they will not be able to get ration this month. “If people of remote Islands have failed to link Aadhaar, it is Administration’s fault for not providing enough facilities for villagers of remote areas,” he said.
