Delhi: Senior Citizens, Specially-Abled Can Have Nominees To Collect Ration

An order dated August 26 was issued to ensure that no beneficiary of the Public Distribution System is left out of the safety net due to biometric failures. The Delhi Food Department has now allowed senior citizens, specially-abled and other people who cannot authenticate their thumb impressions or biometrics to enable other family members or caretakers to collect ration on their behalf.

Ration shops in the National Capital have enabled the Electronic Point of Sale (e-POS) system. The beneficiary can collect their ration with their thumb impression and iris authentication only.

Three Categories of Beneficiaries

The Indian Express reported that the Centre had previously written to the states to address the issues regarding the e-POS and attend to the grievances of the beneficiaries. Therefore, the Food Department has allowed people in three categories to avail the facility.

The family with all members aged above 65 years or below 16 years who cannot visit the shop can appoint a nominee. Secondly, if all family members are patients of leprosy, or are bedridden, or are suffering from any other impairments, can appoint a nominee—lastly, a family where all members fail Aadhar authentication, despite correct seeding.

72 Lakh PDS Shops In Delhi

The nominee will have to register their card in the same shop as the family appointing them. Delhi has nearly 72 lakh PDS shops and a network of 1,998 fair price shops. The government rolled out the e-POS system in July. July and August saw a late start to the ration distribution facility, and in August, the distribution started on the 26th. Usually, the ration distribution process should commence on the 10th of every month.

The National Capital Region(NCR) houses nearly two crore senior citizens, which accounts for 8 per cent of the region's population. Delhi alone houses more than 12 lakh pension beneficiaries.

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