127 including PDS dealers, beneficiaries booked for siphoning off rations

Agra / Firozabad: Agra and Firozabad district administrations have filed nine FIRs against 80 PDS dealers and 46 beneficiaries who allegedly siphoned off several quintals of food items by using Aadhaar data of genuine card holders multiple times.

In Firozabad, Anil Kumar Kushwaha, a computer operator of district supply office, was also booked for allegedly uploading fake data of

ration

distribution in connivance with PDS dealers. The clerk is currently absconding. According to the district supply officer (DSO), eight Aadhaar cards were used 1,510 times to withdraw subsidised rations.

In Agra, data from 41 Aadhaar cards was used 8,468 times by PDS dealers and beneficiaries to pilfer rations. The action comes a week after the state government alerted 43 district supply officers (DSO) about large-scale pilferage of subsidised rations.

Firozabad DSO Amit Kumar Tiwari said, “Eight Aadhaar cards were used 1,510 times to avail subsidised ration in the district. During probe, it was found, that one of our clerks, along with some other fraudsters, made forged entries into the system for their personal financial gains.”

Umesh Chand Mishra, Agra DSO, said, “Without the involvement of clerks and other government employees, such large-scale pilferage could not have been possible. We are conducting an internal audit to find the moles in the system.”

Mishra added that details of genuine Aadhaar card holders were used several times to carry out over 8,000 transactions to pilfer 2017 quintals of wheat and sugar. “This might just be the tip off the iceberg as we are expecting that further investigation might bring out more names.”

On August 21, the government had said that Aadhaar details of genuine beneficiaries were being used in 43 districts to carry out fraudulent transaction on Aadhaar-based POS machines.

Among the 43 districts, the maximum number of fraudulent POS transactions were reported from Allahabad (37,500), followed by Meerut (27,000), Muzaffarnagar (19,000), Ghaziabad (16,500) and Noida (16,000).


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