Ineligible Gzb households told to surrender ration cards by May 20
The deadline for ineligible individuals to surrender their ration cards has been extended to May 20, after which the district supplies department will initiate recovery proceedings, officials said on Monday.
Despite the deadline to surrender ration cards ending on April 30, so far, only 991 people surrendered them in Ghaziabad. There is no official estimate regarding how many people are ineligible to hold these cards, officials of the district supplies department added.
According to orders issued by the department in April, residents are ineligible to hold a ration card if any member in their family pays income tax, more than one member holds an arms licence, or if a member has an annual income of more than ₹3 lakh in urban areas and ₹2 lakh in rural areas, or owns a house, flat or commercial space.
Families who own a fourwheeler/tractor/harvester/an air-conditioner or generator set at home are considered ineligible to hold ration cards as well.
“So far, the majority of people who have opted to surrender their cards belong to the rural areas of the district. Around 460 households from Modinagar, 150 from Loni and six from Khoda have surrendered their cards. The remaining are from the city areas. The pace of the withdrawal of cards is very slow. We have extended the deadline to May 20. Residents can surrender their cards if they meet any of the given conditions,” said Seema Chaudhary, district supplies officer.
“In case ineligible residents miss the May 20 deadline, we will send them recovery notices and may even lodge FIRS against them under provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The recovery will be made as per the guidelines. Individuals/households can surrender their cards at our sub-offices located in Vijay Nagar, Vasundhara, etc. May 20 is the final deadline, and the recovery process will start thereafter,” Chaudhary added.
According to officials, the “recovery process” includes imposing penalties at a rate of ₹24 for a kilogram of wheat and ₹32 for a kilogram of rice since the time ineligible households started availing ration.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, card holders were provided with free rations twice a month — once from the Centre, and once from the Uttar Pradesh government.
Officials said there are two types of ration cards — Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards and Priority Household cards. Families with an annual income of less than ₹3 lakh per annum in urban areas and those with an annual income of less than ₹2 lakh in rural areas are eligible for Priority Household cards. People who have no house, fixed income or working skills — essentially, the poorest strata of the society — are eligible for AAY cards.
According to government records, the district has so far issued 438,000 ration cards under the Priority Household category and 8,500 under the Antyodaya scheme.
In one of the first decisions chief minister Yogi Adityanath took after assuming office for a second term in March, he announced that his government will continue to provide 1,500,000 eligible people with free ration for the next three months. To be sure, after the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls in March, several political pundits said that free ration provided during the pandemic helped the party win a second term.
If ineligible families miss the deadline, we will send them recovery notices.
SEEMA CHAUDHARY, district supplies officer