The Bombay high court, too, directed the government to cover card holders who had not been covered previously under the Food Security Act.

Mumbai: More than 99 lakh people will be covered under the Food Security Act, as 12 per cent of food grains are being saved each month, thanks to Aadhaar card-based ration cards introduced across the state, said food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat.

The Aadhaar card-based ration cards have left no scope for usage of duplicate or bogus cards in the public distribution system.

Although food grains for over one crore people were being siphoned fraudulently for several years, the state government was unwilling to take action against fair price shop-owners or card-holders as there was insufficient staff to scrutinise the information and investigate, Mr Bapat said.

While the Union government had sanctioned food grains for 7 crore people in the state under the Food Security Act, over 1 crore people were not getting food grains. Reason being the Antyoday, BPL (below poverty line), and APL (above poverty line) cards were not linked to Aadhaar cards.

However, after linking all these cards to Aadhaar numbers and introducing the digitally connected card system in all 52,000 shops of the state, only holders of cards linked to Aadhaar numbers are able to avail food grains. What’s more, over 10 lakh duplicate and bogus cards have got cancelled. So, 10 to 12 per cent food grains are getting saved every month. Effectively in 2017-18, 364,895 metric tonnes of food grains were not siphoned, informed Mr Bapat.

The Maharashtra government decided to add 99 more card holders under the food security list, else the centre would have reduced its food grain quota for 7 crore people.

The Bombay high court, too, directed the government to cover card holders who had not been covered previously under the Food Security Act.