DM catches 5 pvt operators feeding unverified ration card data in portal

Shahjahanpur: Five private operators in the district supply office were caught uploading unverified data on application forms for ration card in the public distribution system portal on Thursday morning. The operators were caught during a surprise inspection by district magistrate Amrit Tripathi and additional district magistrate JK Sharma. The DM has ordered that the computers on which the data was being fed be seized and verification of all data fed over the past one week.
A clerk at the district supply office was suspended by district administration on Wednesday after complaints were received against him.
The public distribution system is often under the scanner due to complaints about allotment of BPL ration card to non beneficiaries. Many a time, an actual beneficiary is left out because unverified data.
Tripathi found that the five private operators were actually hired for uploading Aadhaar details. They were not authorized to be in the district supply office and were feeding the data of “beneficiaries” of the PDS scheme but these were not verified by district supply inspectors concerned.
The operators were asked to leave immediately but no complaint has been registered against them so far. ADM JK Sharma has been handed over the investigation of this matter.
Sharma told TOI,"The operators caught by us were not authorized to feed the ration card data into the system and their presence indicates that something fishy was going on. We are verifying the data fed in the system over the past one week and further action will be taken once the investigation is complete.”