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The Government of India had started linking Aadhaar Cards to Ration Cards. Under the "One Nation, one Ration Card" agenda, the centre had made it clear that ration cardholders have to link Aadhaar and Ration card but there was no limiting date. But due to the coronavirus lockdown, this news started doing rounds that people are being denied food at PDCs.
Thus, the Government issued a statement today:
The timeline given to all States/UTs, under the Aadhaar notification of the Department of Food and Public Distribution dated 07.02.2017 (as amended from time-to-time) to complete the seeding of Aadhaar numbers with all ration cards/beneficiaries, has been extended up to 30/09/2020 by the Department.
Indian citizens can now link their Aadhaar and Ration cards on or before 30th September 2020. People who have genuine Ration cards will be allowed foodgrains and their data will not be deleted just because they haven't linked to the Aadhaar number.
The centre also said that, under NFSA, PDCs cannot deny entitled foodgrains due to failure of biometric or Aadhaar authentication of beneficiary because of poor biometrics of the beneficiary, issues with network/connectivity/linking or any other technical reasons.
How many Aadhar Card and Ration Card are linked today?
At present, nearly 90% of all 23.5 Cr. ration cards are already linked to the Aadhaar numbers of ration card holders (i.e. at least one member of the family). Whereas, nearly 85% of all 80 Crore beneficiaries have also linked their Aadhaar Card number with their respective ration cards.
During the current coronavirus, the Centre has urged States and Union Territories to follow a pragmatic approach so that no poor or deserving person or family is denied access to food grains. In due course, linking of Aadhar to the ration card and beneficiaries will ensure that no person entitled to such ration is denied such access.