27L bogus ration cards cancelled, 33L new issued
The Yogi Adityanath government has cancelled over 27 lakh ration cards identified as bogus and ineligible during a three-month statewide intensive drive ending August 31.
Now, it has issued over 33 lakh new ration cards to the deserving poor families that were so far deprived of subsidised food grains.
The 27,18,989 ration cards found to be bogus account for around 8% of a little more than 3.41 crore total ration cards in the state. However, the number of ineligible cards has been found relatively more in the priority household category than the Antyodaya (poorest of the poor) category.
Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), an Antyodaya family is entitled to the highly subsidised 35 kg rice/ wheat per month irrespective of the number of members in the family while a priority household gets 5 kg wheat/rice per member per month for the same price.
Principal secretary, food and civil supply, Nivedita Shukla Verma told HT: “As many as 98,089 Antyodaya cards and 26,20,900 priority household cards were found to have been issued to ineligible families, totaling 27,18,989 cards comprising around 1.15 crore units.”
“After deleting the bogus ration cards, we have identified and included 33,32,968 new eligible households in the list of beneficiaries,” she added.
An analysis of the districtwise list prepared by the office of the commissioner, food and civil supply, shows the number of bogus cards was the highest in the districts around the state capital.
The six districts under the Lucknow division— Unnao, Lakhimpur Kheri, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Hardoi and Lucknow — together account for 3,55,270 bogus cards (15,510 Antoday and 3,39,760 priority households).
Moradabad, Meerut and Allahabad divisions follow Lucknow.
Among the districts, Allahabad with 2,110 Antyodaya and 1,39,452 priority household bogus ration cards has been found to be on the top of the list followed by Ghaziabad (294/94359), Agra (181/81,324), Bijnor (387/78,253) and Hardoi (5001/73538).
In Lucknow district, 91 Antyodaya and 67,028 priority household ration cards have been found bogus.
While all the 91 Antyodaya cards have been issued to eligible families, only 41,626 eligible families have been identified and cards issued under the priority households so far against the 67,028 cards deleted in the district.
Verma said the department will soon start holding special camps all over the state, where people could come to claim inclusion of their names in the list of the beneficiaries under the Antyodaya/priority household category if they thought their name had been left out despite their being eligible.
“We will also have a relook at the districts where the number of ineligible ration cards has been found to be quite low and get the cards re-examined afresh, if so needed,” she said.
As per the NFSA provisions, not less than 79.56% rural and 64.43% urban population is to be given the food security cover in UP.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who also holds the food and civil supply portfolio, had announced in March-April the door-to-door verification of ration cards with a view to cancelling the bogus ones and issuing the ration cards to the deserving families.