Wrong Aadhaar seeding halts benefits to 3,000

Kadapa: Aadhaar card numbers of over 3,000 ration cardholders have been wrongly seeded with ration cards of people in other districts causing severe problems to the poor. As a result, beneficiaries, including women, the aged and students, are forced to forgo benefits under various schemes that are linked to the ration card.

Highlights:

• Numbers are seeded to ration cards in other districts
• Tahsildar tell the affected people to go to the relevant tahsildar offices in other districts to solve the problem
• Cardholders are denied various benefits like NTR Health Services, loans from SC, ST and BC Corporations due to the mistake committed by officials

Further, the affected persons are deprived of benefits under NTR Health Services, pensions, SC, ST and BC corporation’ loan programmes, Chandranna Bima and a scheme to supply tools to farmers on subsidy. Besides, students are being deprived of scholarships on account of the wrong seeding of their Aadhaar numbers with ration cards in other districts.

The affected have been making rounds to the office of tahsildar for the last one year but in vain. Moreover, the tahsildars have been turning away the beneficiaries telling them to go to offices of the relevant tahsildars in other districts. When confronted by the affected, the officials are giving a stock reply that the ball is in the Civil Supplies Corporation court as they had furnished it with necessary details.

According to ration cardholders Rammohan, Chenna Reddy and Mohammed of the district, though there are alternative ways and means to redress the problem, the official apathy is proving to be the bane for the affected persons. In Kadapa district, there are 6,98,926 ration cards benefiting 21,56,192 persons. Because of the wrong seeding, pensions are being denied to the aged and widows. The affected have been appealing to the state government for immediate intervention to solve their problem.

By Nagaraju