By Vishwas Dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: The state food supplies and consumer welfare department, which launched the digitised ration cards scheme for the poor Wednesday, has left its work half done. The result, the poor are running from pillar to post for getting the subsidized ration.
The new process is so haphazardly conceived and implemented that large numbers of people in Bhubaneswar — where the pilot project was launched — are having a harrowing time completing the formalities thereof. They are forced to make repeated rounds of the FSCW department and the BMC to submit their forms for ration cards. It is learnt that a private firm that the government roped in for the job has not measured up to people’s expectations or requirements.
Ironically, no fresh survey has been conducted since 1992 to identify the genuinely poor families — a pre-requisite to launch the new welfare scheme. This is resulting in a utter confusion. A question that is asked is, what about those who set up families thereafter – in the last
22 years?
In this context, allegations surfaced that the state government is providing subsidized ration to “select” (poor) families through the public distribution system (PDS). A fact, in specific, about the capital city is that the population of the low income groups has risen manifold since 1992. They are literally left in the lurch by the state food supplies department.
According to the 1992 survey, the state capital had 1,25,554 above poverty line (APL) families and 12,614 below the poverty line (BPL). The Union Government had incorporated a new category— Antyodaya anna yojana (AAY) which comprised people from the lower strata. The capital has 5,250 AAY families while many officials admit the number is much higher. What about them?
Commissioner-cum-secretary (FSCW) to the department, Madhusudan Padhi, refused to comment on the subject. “As the matter is between the Centre and the state, I can’t say anything on this,” he told Orissa POST.
Notably, the Centre has also not revised the allocation of ration quota for the state since 1992. According to officials, an APL family can get four litres of kerosene at the rate of `7 a kg while a kilo of rice is being provided to BPL families at Re 1 (a maximum of 25 kg a month). AAY category people are getting 35kg rice per family per month.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rolled out the digitised ration cards scheme under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 at Chakiesiani in Ward 5, in which only a handful 50 individuals were given the ration cards.
The state has launched NFSA in association with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on a pilot basis, first in Rayagada district and then in BMC and Bhubaneswar block areas. It was found that 30 per cent of the poor were not able to get their ration cards.
A round ten per cent of them got cards by producing fake documents in Rayagada district, August 2014.A WFP study has found 82 per cent of population in rural and 58 per cent in urban areas are entitled to subsidized ration.
The government has received 1.86lakh applications from the people under BMC and Bhubaneswar block areas so far. Their eligibility would be verified by the Panchayat Samitis and the FSCW department. But, the process is tardy from the very start.
Amid the chaos, it appears BMC corporators are also fed up with the increasing cases of forgery indulged in by people to get ration cards, coming as it does in the context of the faulty implementation of the scheme in the capital. “Most people want ration cards despite the fact it is meant only for the BPL and AAY categories. This has led to an increase in fake cases. In my ward, around 12,000 voters are there, of which 50 families fall under BPL,” Ward 45 corporator Amresh Jena said.
Four-time corporator from Ward 29 and chairman of BMC taxation standing committee Sheik Nizamuddin admitted that there is a spurt in fake ration cards in his ward. “Around 1,800 families in my ward have applied for ration cards under NFSA. There are also a few people who earn over `50,000 but still applied for ration cards,” he lamented.
