NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar administration has cancelled the licences of 31 ration distributors for alleged involvement in the public distribution system (PDS) scam. The administration has formed a four-member committee to identify new distributors to which the 15,000 affected beneficiaries can be attached.Sources said the recent scam across the state was the first instance of unauthorised Aadhaar cards being used to pilfer ration from the accounts of genuine beneficiaries.District magistrate BN Singh said 20 licences had been cancelled in Noida, seven in Greater Noida and four in Dadri. “New vendors will be roped in soon for the public distribution system to stay adloat. Legal action has been taken against the people involved in the scam,” he said. The vendors found guilty are located in areas such as Harolla, Bhangel, Sadarpur, Salarpur, Gejha, Beghampur, Barolla, sectors 19, 20, 37, Mangrolli, Chaprolli, Sakipur, Gulistanpur, Surajpur, etc.Asked about the modus operandi, an official said the PDS distributors involved in the scam replaced the Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries with those of people known to them to transfer tonnes of ration into fictitious accounts. The distributors saved and used the thumb impressions of genuine card holders to make the unauthorised transactions.The probe into the PDS scam traces its roots to Ghaziabad. In August, the department of food and logistics of the UP government received information about large-scale pilferage of ration orchestrated by rigging e-PoS machines in different parts of the state. The administration came to know about the scam after receiving complaints from some beneficiaries who did get their share of ration despite records showing otherwise. The first incident was reported in Ghaziabad, where 195 people, including 102 distributers, were booked. A further probe revealed similar scams in Allahabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, and Gautam Budh Nagar. The district administration also launched an investigation and found 31 distributors involved in similar fraudulent activities.The administration suspended their licences and filed a report to the government. The UP government then directed the Noida administration to launch a crackdown on such people involved in the scam. An FIR was also registered against these distributors in Noida.The scam has affected the food distribution system and scores of beneficiaries attached to these distributors. Sources said around 500 beneficiaries were attached to each distributor and in total, 15,000 families had been affected.District supply officer RN Yadav said these beneficiaries were in the process of being attached to another distributor located in the vicinity. “We are in the process of hiring new distributors within a month. The distribution system will be streamlined once we get new vendors. We will monitor the distribution system continuously,” he said.