(This story originally appeared in on Sep 10, 2014)

NEW DELHI: More than 1.8 lakh families have failed the eligibility test for monthly supplies of subsidized ration under the food security programme . The Aadhaar registration of all members of these families was found to be invalid. These families make up over six lakh individuals. The findings have alerted the Delhi government to the possibility of miscreants duping poor aspirants to generate bogus ration cards. While the verification has foiled any such attempt for now, the food and civil supplies department has launched an investigation to prevent violations in future.More than 21 lakh applications were received since the scheme was launched last year. During verification, the Adhaar enrolment ID was found to be invalid in case of 1,38,193 families. In case of 37,266 families, the unique Adhaar ID was didn't exist, and in another 9,067 applications, either the UID or the enrolment ID was invalid. The applications together accounted for 6,04,660 individual aspirants. Under the Food Security Act, four kilograms of wheat at Rs 2 per kg and 1kg of rice at Rs 3 per person is the monthly takeaway for beneficiaries.The secretary (food and supplies), S S Yadav, told TOI that he has ordered a probe into the reason for this peculiar discrepancy and also a crackdown on any miscreants who may be trying to sneak in bogus entries. "Every single member of these 1.8 lakh-odd families has provided us with Adhaar enrolment numbers or the final unique ID numbers which are invalid. There is something wrong somewhere. How can all members of so many families hold invalid IDs?" he said.A centralized SMS will be sent to all these applicants informing them that their Adhaar IDs have been found to be invalid. "The circle offices will then contact these people on the numbers on the applications. Since Aadhaar is not mandatory as per a Supreme Court order, we cannot disqualify these applicants. With the ID number or enrolment being made compulsory for registration, we would want to verify these applicants to prevent any bogus ones from making it to the final list," Yadav added.With a target of 73 lakh beneficiaries, the department is making all efforts to shore up the distribution system. For instance, the government wants to give the fair price shopkeeper the option to provide banking facilities by way of a micro ATM and a banking correspondent to the poor. "We are in talks with banks to provide the poor with facilities on their doorstep. The banking correspondent will be paid a fixed financial incentive monthly. This will ensure the shop remains open for residents," Yadav added. There are 2,500 ration shops in Delhi. The government recently liberalized its policy on items allowed to be sold from these.