Strange as it may sound, the State Food and Civil Supplies Department has set April 1 as the deadline for the implementation of the National Food Security Scheme although over half of the works related to digitalisation of new ration cards under the scheme remains incomplete. The Centre has made it categorically clear that it will not release foodgrains under the NFS Scheme unless all the new ration cards under the scheme are digitalised in all the districts of the State.
A report received from the State Food and Civil Supplies Department has revealed that the State has so far completed digitalisation of a little over seven lakh new ration cards and around six lakh ration cards are till now left to be digitalised. If State Food and Civil Supplies Department officials are to be believed, the NFSS will be implemented from April 1.
State FCS Deputy Commissioner NC Semwal said that 7,17,371 out of a total of 13,16,790 new ration cards have been digitised by the district officers. The district food and civil supply officers have been directed to complete the digitisation of such cards by February 28 so that the implementation of the scheme can be started on April 1.
The question is, is it possible for the department to complete the digitalisation of around six lakh new ration cards in just ten days when the same department had taken around two years to digitise half of themIJ
Ironically enough, the Dehradun district administration said it would start implementing the scheme on March 1 while the State Food and Civil Supplies Department officials have set deadline of April 1. The crux of the story is that a common man might view things from two angles — either the department is indulging in moonshine having fixed a time-frame to complete the pending works the load of which is too enormous to be humanly undertaken or it is taking the people for a ride, knowing full well they are chasing a veritable chimera.
“Keep in mind the significance of the day the deadline is set on and things would be clear like crystal,” said a person who is awaiting his new ration card to be digitised.The inordinate delay in digitalising the new ration cards under the NFS Scheme with the State Food and Civil Supplies Department not being alive to the gravity of things is, in its turn, delaying the implementation of the scheme in the State.
Sixty-two percent of the State's population would directly benefit from the scheme. The scheme as it was envisaged would be instrumental in combating hunger and malnutrition in the country. It may be mentioned here that after the launching of the scheme on August 20, 2013 in the State, the then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had distributed ration kits to 100 women beneficiaries, announcing that under the scheme the poor would get five kilos of food grain comprising three kilos of rice and two kilos of wheat per person for Rs3 and Rs2, per kg, respectively.
The BPl and Antyodaya card holders were included in the scheme. He had also stated that the APl section having monthly income up to Rs15,000 would also benefit after they were provided with the new ration cards under the scheme.