Bhubaneswar: Huge amounts of tax payers’ money are being used to provide food security to below poverty line people. However, due to a faulty policy of the government, over 10 lakh ineligible people have looted the ration of poor people for nearly four years.
According to official sources, after making Aadhaar linkage mandatory to avail food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), it has come to the notice of the government that 10.79 lakh bogus people have been covered under NFSA. They went on taking ration like rice, kerosene and wheat since the implementation of the Act in state.
People with government jobs, personal vehicles and land have availed subsidised food grain intended for the poor that too with the knowledge of the concerned government workers.
The state government has deleted names of 8.18 lakh ineligible beneficiaries and 2.61 lakh ghost beneficiaries from the NFSA list.
Now, questions are being raised on what action will be taken against officials who are responsible for the loopholes in the scheme and how the looted ration will be recovered.
The state government has transferred names of 10.79 lakh beneficiaries included under its own State Food Security Scheme (SFSS) to NFSA. As a result, the burden on the state government will come down from this month onwards, said a Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department official.
Over 3.26 crore people have been covered under NFSA while nearly 15 lakh people avail Re 1 per kg rice under SFSS.