Smart cards to replace Badal’s blue cards

The old cards are invalid. The CM has already ordered review of the beneficiaries. KAP SINHA, principal secretary, food and civil supplies

: Over two months after assuming power in the state, the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government has ordered replacing the Atta-Dal scheme cards — having pictures of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and then food and supplies minister Adaish Pratap Singh Kairon — with smart cards.

The decision in this regard was taking by Amarinder. The scheme cards were issued by the food and supplies department to over 30-lakh beneficiaries during the previous SAD-BJP regime.

Badal was so particular to take credit of the scheme that in October 2016, he suspended the distribution of cards on noticing that his picture was missing. Under fire, the department had to get special stickers with Badal’s picture printed and pasted on the cards.

The scheme was one of the flagship programmes of the Badal government under which atta and dal is provided to the below poverty line families on subsided rates. “The old cards are invalid. The CM has already ordered review of the beneficiaries of the scheme,” said KAP Sinha, principal secretary, food and civil supplies.

He said that CM has decided to issue smart cards against the tradition blue cards. The smart card, without any picture, will be linked with the Aadhaar card of the beneficiary. The scheme will be computerised and execution will start shortly, he added.