The Haryana Government has sought approval of the Centre to replace 52 lakh paper-based ration cards with smart cards under a pilot project whose cost is estimated at Rs.153.27 crore, an official spokesman said here on Thursday.
He expressed hope that the proposal would get clearance soon and said that with the implementation of the project Haryana would become the first State, along with the Union Territory of Chandigarh, to introduce smart cards for the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Pilot project
He said the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, had made an announcement about introduction of smart cards for the PDS system in Haryana and Chandigarh as a pilot project in his Budget speech earlier this year.
Based on the announcement, the Food and Supplies Department of the Haryana Government had asked HARTRON to prepare a detailed project report which was submitted to the Centre in July.
Source:The Hindu August29th,2008.
