Glitch in matching biometrics prevents cardholders from receiving their Pongal gift hampers in Thanjavur

The Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association has claimed that some of the family cardholders were unable to receive their Pongal Gift Hampers in Delta districts after the point of sale machines at the ration shops rejected their biometric inputs.

In a memorandum, forwarded to the State government through the Thanjavur district administration, Association secretary Sundara Vimalanathan said that PDS shop employees expressed their inability to proceed further as the machines turned down the biometric inputs of certain beneficiaries, particularly elderly people and people with disabilities.

They were directed to get their biometrics updated in UIDAI portal and make a second attempt to receive their Pongal Gift Hampers since the matching of iris details of the beneficiary was not entertained at the ration shops, he added.

Meanwhile, an elderly person in Thanjavur alleged that at a ration shop along the Medical College Road the ‘priceless’ sari and dhoti were not issued to cardholders along with the Pongal Gift Hampers.

When contacted, the officials said cardholders whose biometrics did not match had been asked to update them in the UIDAI portal. Those who did not receive their sari and dhoti due to ‘short supply’ had been asked to collect it later.