Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s younger brother, Prahlad Modi, claimed that the E-FPS system is creating problems in ensuring the smooth disbursal of the ration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s younger brother, Prahlad Modi, claimed that the E-FPS system is creating problems in ensuring the smooth disbursal of the ration.

Several people have been denied their monthly ration at fair price shops in Gujarat due to technical glitches in an Aadhaar-based authentication system which is used to validate beneficiaries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s younger brother, Prahlad Modi, told PTI on Thursday. Prahlad Modi is president of Gujarat Fair Price Shop Owners Association.

The Gujarat government had launched ‘Maa Annapurna Yoyana’ in April 2016 to provide subsidised food-grains to eligible beneficiaries through 17,000-odd ration (fair price) shops under the National Food Security Act. The fair price shops are linked with a central database through an E-FPS software system which validates beneficiaries. Under the system, a beneficiary must provide Aadhaar details and thumb impression to avail his or her quota of ration.

Prahlad Modi claimed that the E-FPS system is creating problems in ensuring the smooth disbursal of the ration. “There are a number of problems with the software. Sometimes it does not read the thumb impression and doesn’t accept Aadhaar card details when it takes a little longer to process. At times, there is a problem while logging in as the software runs slow,” he told PTI.

He demanded that the government iron out the problems soon, and, in the meantime, the fair price shop owners should be allowed to use the old manual system.

“The government should provide an alternative so that a customer is not forced to go back empty-handed. It should also provide training to shop owners on how to operate the software,” he added.

Modi and other members of his association met senior officials of the Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs Department in this regard yesterday. “The government has agreed that no beneficiary should be forced to go back without subsidised food-grains due to the problems in the software. It has assured that some alternative will be provided until the problems are sorted out,” he said.

with PTI inputs

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