CHENNAI: In a bid to stamp out bogus family cards, the State government will distribute biometric-based smart family cards in 2012-13, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa informed the Assembly on Friday.Responding to the appeals of several MLAs, including Manithaneya Makkal Katchi member A Aslam Basha, to eliminate bogus ration cards, Jayalalithaa said the family cards currently in circulation would be replaced by biometric cards. The director of census operations under the National Population Registry is conducting biometric capturing of the 10 fingerprints and the iris of citizens to issue a unique identification number (UIN). “After completion of the biometric capturing, it has been proposed to adopt the data for issue of biometric smart family cards,” she said. Bills can be drawn at the PDS outlets only if the cards are physically presented. Hence, the move to use UIN will eliminate bogus cards and bogus billing.ValidityThe validity of existing family cards is up till December 31, 2011. Family cards are now being issued without any unique mechanism to identify duplication of members in more than one place. This has led to registration of members in family cards in more than one place resulting in fake cards. In PDS outlets, bogus billing are done for family cards that were not used to buy commodities. The present move is expected to address the problem.
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