Mumbai: Congress party city president Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday objected to linking ration cards with Aadhaar and said that it violates a key Supreme Court order.
The apex court said the government could not make the linking of Aadhaar card compulsory for people to avail themselves of welfare benefits, Mr Nirupam said.
However, the state government was still forcing people to link their Aadhaar cards with the ration cards. It was penalising more than 21.82 lakh Mumbaikars by deregistering their ration cards if they were not linked, he said.
Mr Nirupam produced a slew of documents to show how the state government was still forcing people to link their Aadhaar cards with the ration cards. “More than 21.82-lakh Mumbaikars are penalised in this exercise of deregistering their ration cards if they were not linked to Aadhaar. This clearly contradicts the Supreme Court order which states that an Aadhaar card cannot be made compulsory for the people to avail themselves of the benefits. The Aadhaar Act, especially Section 7, which allows the use of Aadhaar to deliver government services, does not specify it is mandatory,” he added.
Those who have been deregistered by the government are not getting their rations, he said. The senior Congress leader showed documents that indicated only 30 per cent of Mumbaikars manage to get their rations. “Of the 54-lakh plus Mumbaikars who are beneficiaries of ration supplies if only 30 per cent is availing it with half the month has gone, it is clear that the system is rejecting the rest,” he added.
Mr Nirupam pointed to problems of other citizens too. “Those who have registered and linked their Aadhaar with ration cards are also facing acute problems. This is because there is an EPOS machine that has been installed at the ration shops which in most cases do not work and it is mandatory for every ration card holder to use the EPOS machine in order to buy the ration supply.”
