Ludhiana, March 4 -- The Centre's work on removing 'bogus' beneficiaries from the Public Distribution System (PDS) through 'know your customer' (KYC) verification has been marred by persistent glitches in electronic point-of-sale machines and iris-based scanners, officials aware of the matter said. They added that these machines, available at ration depots or fair price shops, are used for biometric authentication of ration-card holders.

According to official data, Ludhiana district has 17,65,217 ration card holders registered under PDS, the highest in the state. The data says that of these, KYC has been completed for 13,59,527 beneficiaries, leaving over 4 lakh unverified.

A local ration depot holder says, "The point-of-sale machines a...