New Delhi: The government has instructed states not to deny benefits under the public distribution system to beneficiaries who don’t have Aadhaar numbers or haven’t linked their ration cards to the biometric identifier, the directive coming after a Jharkhand girl’s recent death from alleged starvation.
It has also asked state governments not to delete eligible households from the list of PDS beneficiaries for non-possession of Aadhaar cards and warned of strict action in case of violations. The Union food ministry clarified that names could be deleted from the ration card database only after a proper verification established "beyond reasonable doubt" that an entry was not genuine.
Local officials in BJP-ruled Jharkhand had claimed Santoshi Kumari died of malaria in Simdega, 150km from Ranchi, on September 28. But activists have alleged the 11-year-old girl died of starvation after being denied PDS ration because her family’s ration card had been cancelled as it was not linked to the 12-digit identifier.
According to the instructions issued this week, field functionaries in states have been asked to ensure that beneficiaries are not turned away for not possessing Aadhaar cards and to record all exceptions in a separate logbook.
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