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Bhubaneswar, July 18: Amid a hue and cry over large scale irregularities in implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the state government Monday warned all the ineligible beneficiaries of stern action if they fail to surrender their ration cards before August 15, 2016.
“Those who fail to meet one of the nine criteria should surrender their ration cards to the local authorities before August 15 to avoid action against them,” said food supplies and consumer welfare (FSCW) minister Sanjay Das Burma at the Secretariat here Monday evening.
The minister said stern action will be initiated against the ineligible ration card holders who fail to adhere to the deadline.
Collectors of all the 30 districts have been issued necessary instructions in this regard, Das Burma added.
The move of the state government follows the government’s direction to the district collectors to weed out bogus names from the lists of ration card holders and certify to the effect that no ineligible card holder exists in their districts.
The government had stated that it had fixed a tentative date of July 31 to complete the process of eliminating ineligible beneficiaries. However, it had also said that the date can be extended until all such card holders are removed from the entire list.
Meanwhile, Das Burma told the media that till date 3.28 lakh ineligible beneficiaries of 91,431 families have surrendered their ration cards. Besides, 72,766 eligible beneficiaries have also been included in the list after exclusion, he added.
Till the previous week of July, FIRs had been filed against 4,217 persons while 225 had been arrested for illegally availing of NFSA cards. The government had also recovered Rs 6.10 crore from ineligible ration card holders which they had obtained illegally.
