Hyderabad, Feb 26: Nearly three crore fake and duplicate ration cards have been cancelled during the three years of the NDA government, CR Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said today. It had also saved the country Rs 17,000 crore every year during this time, he added.

Linking the ration card to the holder's Aaadhaar number had allowed the government to clean up the system, the minister said. He was speaking at the 21st National Conference on e-Governance here.

"Out of 23 crore ration cards in the country, 82 percent (19 crores) are linked with Aadhaar. We have removed 2.95 crore fake or duplicate ration cards in the country in the past three years which has resulted in a saving of Rs 17,000 crore annually. It has ensured that foodgrains are being delivered to the rightful person," he informed. Chaudhary said that e-governance could help in increasing the ease of doing business in the country which, in turn, would help attract foreign investment.

Telangana's Minister of IT and Industries, KT Rama Rao, who also addressed the conference, said that 4,500 "Me-Seva" centres in the state were handling 1.5 lakh transactions every day.

He informed that these centres had completed 10 crore transactions since they began seven years ago. He added that an upgraded version of the project, covering 180 government services, would be launched soon. He informed that 6,000 clearances had been given to industries under the state industrial policy called TS-iPass, and this involved an investment of Rs 1.2 lakh crore and had the potential to create three lakh jobs.