To facilitate collection of ration for card holders who are unable  to collect foodgrains from fair-price shops due to age or medical issues, the Delhi government issued an order stating that they can now nominate another person to draw the same on their behalf

The order, issued on August 26, says there will be a certain criteria regarding the eligibility of the beneficiaries to appoint a nominee to collect ration on their behalf. The national capital has implemented the e-POS system under which a beneficiary can collect foodgrains after thumb or iris authentication. The order says only those households can designate a nominee where the number of family members is equal to or less than four.

According to the order, there are three scenarios in which a household can designate a nominee to collect ration on its behalf. “Age of all family members is either greater than 65 years or less than 16 years and not in a position to visit FPS themselves. All members of family are suffering from leprosy, differently-abled, bed ridden or affected by disease adversely affecting beneficiaries’ mobility.

“Biometric authentication failure on e-POS device for all the family members, even if the Aadhaar number for each member is correct,” the order issued by the food, supplies and consumer affairs department stated.

In special cases of leprosy patients, where the beneficiary is unable to designate a nominee, the circle food safety officer will authenticate his Aadhaar number, draw the ration and supply it to him, it added.

The government said a nominee should also be a ration card holder and attached to the same fair-price shop as the beneficiary. In order to designate a person as nominee, the beneficiary will have to fill a nomination form and submit it along with copies of the ration cards and Aadhaar cards of both the nominee and the beneficiary.

Delhi has 17.77 lakh ration card holders and 72 lakh beneficiaries. The city government distributes free ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) through electronic point-of-sale (e-POS) devices.

The national capital had suspended the use of e-POS in ration distribution in early 2018 following complaints of poor network leading to authentication failures and exclusion of genuine beneficiaries. It was restarted in July, along with the implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme.

The Public Distribution System Welfare Association hailed the move and said it will help a number of beneficiaries. President of the association Shailendra Kumar said there are many people who live alone or cannot visit the FPS due to various reasons and hence, there was a need to introduce a system so that they could get ration.

“Earlier, when ration was distributed manually, the foodgrains were supplied to such households. But in the e-POS system, ration distribution is done after biometric authentication, so it was necessary to develop such a facility,” he said.