Govt claims to save in LPG,PDS by linking Aadhaar is incorrect

New Delhi, March 14: The Supreme Court on Wednesday was told that the government's claims of saving by plugging leakage by linking disbursal of rations under the Public Distribution System and LPG with Aadhaar was "incorrect and inflated" as there was no study to back such a claim.

Telling the five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that there was not a single study to demonstrate that "identity fraud" is a large proportion of corruption in the implementation of welfare system, senior counsel K.V.Viswanathan said claims of savings were "incorrect and inflated".

Asserting that there was evidence that "quantity fraud is pervasive", he told the bench also comprising Justice A.K. Sikri, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan that the government claim of saving, inter alia of Rs 14,000 crore in the PDS system, "due to the detection of 2.33 crore ration cards is incorrect, inflated and based on wrong assumption..."