Delhi food minister Imran Hussain chairs review meet on issuing new ration cards in city

The Capital currently has 1.78 million ration card holder households which translates to around 7.2 million beneficiaries

Delhi food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain on Wednesday chaired a review meeting on issuing new ration cards in the national capital and issued directions to officials to ensure that cases of biometric mismatch don’t lead to hardships for beneficiaries.

Delhi food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain. (Mohd Zakir/HT PHOTO)

“Minister Imran Hussain chaired a meeting to review the pendency of applications for new Ration Cards and the addition of beneficiaries in existing Ration Cards in Delhi. Identification of eligible households is in progress and new ration cards will be issued to all eligible households in due process. New Ration Card will be issued on a First In First Out basis,” said the government in a press statement.

Under the National Foods Security Act, states are alloted periodic quotas for issuing new ration cards which is ascertained by the centres depending on Census reports -- that are issued in every 10 days, often leading to long list of applications in districts which witnessed mass migration from other states.

“Ration cardholders who are unable to authenticate their biometrics to receive their monthly quota of free ration in Delhi can now nominate any other person to collect it on their behalf. Direction has been issued to ensure that no public distribution system beneficiary is deprived of ration due to biometric failures, especially since ration shops in Delhi have implemented the electronic point of sale system,” said the statement.

The total population of the city is an estimated 20 million.