Not many states ready for ‘Give up subsidy’ initiative

There has been no response from Telugu states to the Centre’s initiative to launch the “Give Up Subsidy” scheme for Public Distribution System along the lines of LPG.

Following the success of the “Give Up Subsidy for LPG” launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two years ago, the Centre has decided to extend the initiative to all other welfare schemes in a phased manner. This is to ensure that only genuine beneficiaries from poorer sections of society avail the subsidy while the rest, who can afford food grains in open market, give up the subsidy voluntarily.

The Centre has written to all the states to launch Give Up Subsidy for PDS since it and state governments take joint responsibility for running the ration shops and supplying essential commodities through them.

Though TS and AP government received the letters from the Centre nearly a month ago, they did not respond.

Both governments are not keen on launching the scheme in the near future as they feel that LPG cannot be compared with PDS and both are totally different.

Official sources in the Civil Supplies Department said: “Not only TS and AP, but as per our information none of the states in the country has responded to the Centre’s initiative so far. This is because LPG and PDS are different. PDS is availed only by the poorer sections but LPG is availed by all irrespective of their income status. There is thorough verification at ground level before issuing ration cards, while anyone who applies get LPG connection. There is an income limit for PDS but no such limit for LPG.”

Officials said after linking ration cards with Aadhaar and bank accounts, lakhs of ineligible beneficiaries were removed from the list during the last three years. Under these circumstances there was no need for states to ask beneficiaries again to give up PDS subsidy, they said.