Shimla: In Himachal Pradesh state consumer affairs is taking steps to ensure fair and transparent distribution of ration, so that there should be no leakage at the ration depot. The state government will conduct a trial run from June 20 to June 30 to distribute rations to consumers through OTP.
Director, Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs Ramkumar Gautam said that under this, OTP will be sent by fair price shop holders to the mobile number linked to Aadhaar of any one of the members registered in the ration card, and OTP information will be obtained by contacting them on mobile. At present, there are a total of 60467 ration card holders in the state, whose number is 7299045. Out of these, Aadhaar has 99.84 percent and mobile numbers have 94.40 percent. Consumers will have to give information about receiving OTP in yes or no, and OTP is not to be shared with any fair-priced shopkeeper or any other person.
The purpose of this trial is to explore the possibility of distributing rations through OTP in the future in case of any problems in the biometric cell so that consumers do not have to face any problems. The shopkeepers will send OTP to the mobile number of on registered mobile numbers on each ration card and will contact that person over the phone to confirm receipt of the OTP. If the consumer receives the OTP, they will record the entry of that member. If OTP does not come on that person’s mobile, then the fair price shop holder will send OTP to the mobile number of any other person registered on the same ration card, and after confirming receipt of OTP, will record the record of the concerned person.
All consumers were requested to share the information about receiving or not receiving OTP only with the fair price shop holder and under no circumstances share OTP with any other person.