PDS goes smart in Haryana

PDS goes smart in Haryana - Economy and Politics - livemint.com:
The 1,600 families in Haryana’s Panchkula district which line up at fair price shops for foodgrains and kerosene can do away with their prized ration cards, pieces of paper that entitle the poor to subsidized food and fuel.

Beginning Tuesday, while they still have to queue up, these families will receive their rations after a biometric identification using smart cards.

That’s a small beginning for an ambitious Rs138 crore Centrally funded project aimed at checking leakages, curbing corruption and ensuring need-based allocations in the public distribution system (PDS), India’s oldest and largest social security scheme, on which the government will spend Rs55,578 crore over 2010-11.