The food ministry on Monday said the deadline for seeding of Aadhaar with ration cards has been extended till September and stressed that all beneficiaries will continue to get their quota of foodgrains even if they do not possess the biometric identifier.
The ministry issued this clarification on reports thatration cards of those who do not provide Aadhar number will be cancelled.
“The timeline given to all states/UTs, under theAadhaar notification of the Department of Food and Public Distribution datedFebruary 7, 2017 (as amended fromtime-to-time) to complete the seeding of Aadhaar numbers with all rationcards/beneficiaries, has been extended up to September 30, 2020 by thedepartment,” an official statement said.
Until then, the ministry had issued clear instructions toall states and union territories (UTs) that no genuine beneficiary or householdshould be denied from entitled quota of food grains, it said.
“Their names/ration cards should not be deleted/cancelled only on the ground of not possessing an Aadhaar number,” the ministry said.