The traditional ration cards will soon be replaced by smarts cards in Gurgaon as part of a pilot project by the Union Government in Haryana and Chandigarh to streamline the Public Distribution System.
Announcing this at Gymkhana Club here, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Food & Supplies Department) Shakuntala Jakhu said that the task of preparing smart cards will be first taken up in the Pataudi block of Gurgaon. Besides Gurgaon, the districts of Karnal, Ambala, Sirsa and Sonipat will also be covered under the pilot project. The task of preparing smart cards for all of Haryana will be completed by June 2013, he added.
The process of preparing the smart cards will began with Booth Level Officers visiting every household in the area and getting applications forms filled up. These forms will then be submitted to the Food & Supplies Department for scrutiny and further handed over to the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the authorised agency for documentation and collection of biometric fingerprints of the applicants.
TCS will enter the collected data and organise mega camps for taking biometric fingerprints, photographs and scanning the eyes of every applicant. The applicants will then be given a unique enrolment ID. Ms. Jakhu said those who have already applied for Aadhaar UID cards need not apply separately for the smart cards.