Himachal Pradesh became the first state to distribute ration by scanning face, know in detail

July 6, 2025

Himachal has become the first state in the country to implement the system of distributing ration by scanning the face of consumers in cheap ration shops. The Department of Digital Technology and Governance (DDTG) of the state government has introduced Aadhaar-based face authentication system to distribute ration to eligible beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

DDTG has developed a mobile app for this. With its help, depot operators are able to easily verify ration card holders. Till now verification was done through OTP or biometric, but in these processes there were problems of non-delivery of messages and biometric matching in UIDAI. Depot operators were also facing trouble due to this problem. The new face authentication system overcomes these problems and verifies eligible people by scanning the face with the camera installed in the depot operator’s smartphone. With the implementation of the new system, dependence on network connectivity and biometric hardware has ended.

To solve the problem faced by people taking cheap ration in OTP or biometric verification, the Department of Digital Technology and Governance has started the facility of face scan. In the last one week, people of the state have paid about Rs 54,861 in lieu of taking ration by taking advantage of this facility.