L-G agrees with proposal to suspend e-POS devices

New Delhi: Lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal has concurred with the Delhi government’s proposal for the suspension of e-POS devices, hoping that the government has taken into account its legal, financial and administrative implications.

The L-G said, “We should not end up discarding the very technology that enabled detection of fraudulent transactions in the first place.”

A statement from the L-G House said that since chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had alleged fraudulent withdrawal of rations by misusing OTPs authentication in the e-PoS system, the L-G has referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in view of the seriousness of the allegations made for expeditious investigation.

The L-G said that the introduction of e-PoS devices by the government was a step to ensure that eligible beneficiaries get ration.

“The L-G had also observed that within two months of introduction of e-PoS devices, 98.75 per cent of ration had been distributed online through e-PoS devices and operation of e-PoS devices had entered a crucial stage to weed out ineligible card holders from the system, which is going to save around 16 per cent of ration. Hence, the ration so saved could be used for those who are in queue,” a statement from Raj Niwas read.

The L-G also said that he was surprised to receive a proposal from the government to suspend the operation of e-PoS devices. “Mr Baijal said that he had requested the minister on March 20 to reconsider the decision to suspend the operation of e-PoS devices. This would have met the goal of ensuring that while no eligible beneficiary is denied foodgrain, at the same time, no ineligible beneficiary is allowed to avail the benefits intended for the poor and needy. But since the proposal has been received again, the L-G concurred with it,” the statement read

The statement also pointed that the proposal of doorstep delivery of services was never rejected. The LG hoped that sufficient safeguards are being put in place by the elected government in the proposed doorstep delivery scheme, since the same e-PoS machines, whose operation is being suspended now, are proposed to be used for biometric authentication of the beneficiaries in the door step delivery scheme also.  “The LG also stated that it is not clear how the issues now being raised in the operation of the e-PoS devices will be addressed there,” it added.

The LG also observed that the challenge in the proposed door step delivery would be to ensure that there are no malpractices as the human interface at the Fair Price Shop level would now be replaced by another human interface at the level of employees of the private vendor who would be engaged in door step delivery.

The LG stated that if the elected government is convinced that sufficient checks and balances have been put in place in the proposed door step delivery of ration scheme and the issue highlighted by him in the previous note have been addressed, he has no objection to the implementation of the same.  However, the statutory requirement of seeking prior approval of Central Government under Section 12(2)(h) of the National Food Security Act, 2013 as pointed out by the Law Department in its note in the concerned File would have to be met before the scheme is implemented.