Srinagar, July 28: The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) through an official communique has requested the e-Shram registrants who are left out in PDS to come forward and contact their respective Tehsil Supply Offices or Offices of the Assistant Directors for issuance of ration cards/ inclusion.
This is in line with the orders of the Supreme Court of India, to provide inclusion / ration cards to e-Shram registrants who are presently without ration cards, but are eligible to take foodgrains under PDS.
The Department towards its commitment to provide ration cards/ inclusion under PDS, as per the eligibility, to all left-out e-Shram portal registrants of J&K has also carried out special drives including camps organized on 2nd, 3rd February and 23rd, 24th of June 2024 across all the districts of Jammu & Kashmir in the respective Tehsil Supply Offices and in the offices of Assistant Directors.
The Department has also been approaching such registrants in whose case e-Shram registration could not establish inclusion in the PDS database, after matching of respective data. In its effort, till now the Department has reached out to 20656 such registrants in Kashmir Division. Out of these 18136 were found already enrolled in the ration cards and 2555 registrants were found not having ration cards. Out of the 2555 registrants, 1876 have been included in the existing ration cards of their families and 154 have been provided new ration cards, besides for remaining registrants either there was a mismatch in Aadhaar details or they have failed to produce requisite documents.
In case of Jammu Division, till now 47297 such registrants have been reached out by the Department. Out of these 39213 were found already enrolled in the ration cards and 8084 registrants did not have ration cards. Out of the 8084 registrants, 6671 have been included in the existing ration cards of their families and 665 have been provided new ration cards, besides for remaining registrants either there was a mismatch in Aadhaar details or they have failed to produce requisite documents.
As per the official communique the Department has also been approaching these registrants, in whose cases a mismatch has come to fore, on their given phone numbers, however in many cases the contact numbers were either found to be unavailable or not in use or belonging to different persons.
The Department has now again requested all such e-shram registrants, who do not have a ration card or have not been included in their entitled household ration card, to reach out to the nearest Tehsil Supply Office or the Office of Assistant Director along with the requisite documents including Aadhaar card, Domicile Certificate, Income Proof and e-Shram card for being considered for issuance of ration card or for inclusion in their family ration card, as per eligibility.
Additionally the Department has also asked all those PDS beneficiaries and e-Shram registrants who are also PDS beneficiaries and who have not yet completed their eKYC with the Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, to complete this eKYC process at an earliest, to avoid any inconvenience they may face in future and to overcome any mismatch in their data details in PDS database. This EKYC process is required to be completed urgently as per orders of the Supreme Court.
As per the Department, around 83 per cent of the beneficiaries under NFSA and 65 per cent in Non Priority Households group have completed their eKYC so far. The remaining beneficiaries have been asked to complete their eKYC at their nearest FPS or Government sale centre urgently to avoid any inconvenience in future.
Further, it has also been informed that the PDS beneficiaries who are presently out of Jammu & Kashmir can also complete their eKYC from anywhere in the country at the nearest FPSs as that feature has also now been enabled in the system.
