Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has completed e-KYC (know your customer) verification of 3.12 crore out of 3.26 crore PDS beneficiaries (96 per cent) so far, a minister informed the assembly Wednesday.
In a written statement to the House, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra said e-KYC verification of 14.38 lakh beneficiaries, including children below 5 years and elderly people, is pending.
For children below 5 years, field staff have been advised to inform the heads of families to enroll them using a child Aadhaar card so that the reference number can be recorded in the database for future e-KYC, he said.
For elderly beneficiaries, field staff have been asked to reach out to them at their doorsteps and complete their e-KYC verification, Patra said.
The minister asserted that no beneficiary has so far been deleted from the public distribution system (PDS) due to lack of e-KYC.
For the convenience of beneficiaries, the deadline for e-KYC has been extended to December 31.
However, during field verification, authorities detected and deleted 6.93 lakh names of deceased beneficiaries till November 26.
Similarly, 33,128 ineligible families, comprising 1.20 lakh people, were identified during the verification drive, and their ration cards were cancelled, the minister said.
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