Villagers forced to climb hills for e-KYC amid no network

Bageshwar: Residents of remote villages in Bageshwar district have been forced to climb hills to complete the mandatory biometric e-KYC for ration cards due to poor mobile connectivity. In Kapkot block's Ratirkheti village, locals trekked 1.5 km uphill to a 300-metre peak, braving icy winds while waiting for fleeting signals to complete verification.Biometric e-KYC has been made mandatory to maintain the validity of ration cards. For the nearly 700 residents of Ratirkheti, the absence of network coverage turned the exercise into a test of endurance. "There is no signal in the village. To complete e-KYC, we have no option but to climb the hill," said Laxman Singh, a resident. Another villager, Dalip Singh, added wryly, "We are being asked to go digital, but there is no network." Women and children faced added hardship, often carrying meals and waiting on cold stones for hours. "If we catch the signals, our work is done. Otherwise, we sit on stones till evening, waiting for the network," said Tara Devi, who carried her children and packed lunches to the hilltop. Officials acknowledged the challenge, citing around 90 "shadow zones" in Bageshwar with weak or no network. District food supply officer GB Pandey said a verification drive is being conducted on a large scale and efforts are underway to minimise inconvenience for the 63,000 ration cardholders covering nearly 2.57 lakh beneficiaries in the district.While the Dec 15 deadline for e-KYC has passed, the food and civil supplies department confirmed that cardholders can still complete verification under National Food Security Act. Out of over 6 million ration card units in Uttarakhand, 4.8 million have completed e-KYC. A new deadline will be announced soon.