Madhya Pradesh govt plans to link all PDS beneficiaries to Aadhaar number

The Madhya Pradesh Government is planning to link all the 5.34-crore beneficiaries under the public distribution system (PDS) in the state to their Aadhaar card by the end of February.

"A target has been set to make cent percent onlineentries of Aadhaar numbers of the eligible beneficiaries by February end under the ongoing campaign - Aadhaar Aapki Pehchan Abhiyan being run by the Food and Civil Supplies Department," a public relations department officer informed on Sunday.

So far, the details of 2.86-crore PDS beneficiarieshave been linked to the Aadhaar card, he said. "A total of 2.86-crore out of 5.34-crore PDS beneficiaries in the state have been linked to their Aadhaar number. The work of remaining 2.48-crore people will becompleted by February end. The campaign is being run fromFebruary 14-25," he informed.

The official informed that the data of PDS beneficiaries is stored in the National Informatics Centre (NIC) server and it is connected to the point-of-sale (PoS) machines at the PDS shops. The official said that 87 percent of PDS beneficiariesin Dindori district have been linked to their Aadhaar number as on January this year. Similarly, more than 70 per cent beneficiaries were linked in Hoshangabad, Burhanpur and Narsinghpur districts.