STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The State Government has decided that eligible beneficiaries can apply for new ration cards under the NFSA-2013 (National Food Security Act-2013) from January 25 next.
Ration cards will be issued then by the State's Food & Civil Supplies Department after due verification.
According to Food & Civil Supplies & Consumers Affairs Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass, residents of rural areas will have to apply for ration cards through the gaon panchayat concerned and residents of urban areas will have to apply through the municipal board concerned. The income of the applicants will have to be less than Rs 2.50 lakh per annum. Further, applicants who have a government employee as a family member will be ineligible for the benefit, along with those who do not have Aadhaar Cards.
It may be mentioned that the Government had kept in abeyance the issuance of ration cards under the NFSA-2013 for the past few months, when the Government cleansed the database of NFSA ration cards through the deletion of ineligible cardholders and the surrender of ration cards by many ineligible cardholders themselves. However, the matter was reviewed recently as per the Chief Minister's instructions and the Food & Civil Supplies Department decided to resume issuance of ration cards.
The population cap for NFSA cardholders in the State is 2,52,18,001. The state database of NFSA ration cardholders had 2,08,36,588 beneficiaries till September, 2022. It implies that the State Government can still issue NFSA ration cards for at least 43,81,413 eligible beneficiaries. However, according to sources in the Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, the Government can issue NFSA ration cards to around 50 lakhs more eligible beneficiaries following the deletion of names of ineligible beneficiaries by the Government and surrender of ration cards by cardholders after September last year.
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