WFP team holds Aadhaar-linked public distribution system in awe

Rajahmundry: Public Distribution System (PDS) with interlinking of Aadhaar is working wonderfully in East Godavari district, Country Head, World Food Programme (WFP), Michael Jensen, said here on Tuesday. A five-member WFP team from New Delhi visited the district to study the functioning of PDS through Aadhaar interlinking. The team members examined the process of Aadhaar enrolment and Aadhaar seeding at the permanent Aadhaar centre at the Sub-Collector's office here. On this occasion, Mr Jensen said Aadhaar programme would revolutionise the country. Keeping all the details of a citizen would not only be of immense help to the officials, but also the public and the private sectors. There would be a drastic reduction in the cost of transportation through this system as a person with Aadhaar identity could be monitored from anywhere in the country, he informed. Mr Jensen said this system would enable the government to record the identity of a citizen properly and confusion about the personal details would be lessened. The WFP has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Ministry of Food and the team would submit its report to the ministry, he added. Rajahmundry Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) M Venogopal Reddy explained the Aadhaar seeding process to the team comprising Mr Michael Jensen and Pradnya Paitanker from WFP and Seema Bansal, Ashish Jhina and Ruchit Gupta from the Boston Consulting Group. He explained how the ration being distributed to each ration card would be monitored from the mandal office. The details of the ration being distributed from the shops were being kept online for the benefit of the beneficiaries, he said. District Civil Supplies Officer V Ravi Kiran, district manager TVSG Kumar, Divisional Civil Supplies Officer A Raju, grain purchasing officer Balakrishna and Deputy Tahslidar Surapa Raju were present.