STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Responding to an appeal by the Assam Government, 9,345 families comprising 36,213 beneficiaries have surrendered their ration cards in the state in the past six months till November 12.
Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass had appealed to the economically affluent families to give up their ration cards. The beneficiaries who gave up their ration cards included Priority Household (PHH) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cardholders. To date, the state has 58,94,276 ration cards issued. The number of beneficiaries stands at 2,51,17,073.
Of them, 6,91,499 are AAY cardholders with 28,08,301 beneficiaries. And, 5,202,777 are PHH cardholders with 2,23,08,772 beneficiaries.
"There are several economically stable families in the state who are holding ration cards, denying the benefits to the needy ones. We have appealed to such people to surrender their ration cards. We directed the deputy commissioners to verify the genuine cardholders in each fair price shop.
"The Aadhaar seeding of ration cards is likely to weed out all undeserving ration cardholders in the state. The Aadhaar seeding of ration cards is an effective tool to identify bogus or ghost ration cards issued under the PDS (Public Distribution System) and the NFSA (National Food Security Act), 2013."
According to records in the State Food and Civil Supplies Department, the Aadhaar seeding of ration cards in the state is 1,067,519.
In the past three years, the department cancelled over 1.70 lakh bogus ration cards. In 2018, the department cancelled 1,35,250 bogus ration cards, 22,412 in 2019 and 12,395 in 2020. In all, the department deleted 1,70,057 fake ration cards in the past three years.
Also Read: 233 Ration Cards Surrendered Across Assam by Affluent Families, District wise Breakdown Inside
Also watch: