The State Government has already deleted over 45 lakh ineligible beneficiaries from the list of the scheme under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare is regularly monitoring the deletion process taken up in all the districts.
The latest tally shows that names of 45,69,775 individuals have been deleted from the list.
Earlier, the State Government appointed 26 senior officials as Nodal Officers to ensure that the database of beneficiaries prepared for implementation of the NFSA is faultless. These officials visited the districts and even some gram panchayats and wards in urban zones to verify the beneficiary list.
The process of identification of beneficiaries has now almost reached the final stage.
As many as 105 lakh households comprising 399 lakh individuals had applied for new ration cards under the NFSA while the State’s population as per the 2011 Census is 419 lakh. The applications received by the Government are more than the ceiling for ration cards fixed by the Centre.
The Centre has fixed a ceiling of 326 lakh individuals to be covered under the Act.
As there are over 73 lakh more applications over the ceiling, the Government has decided to exclude those found to be ineligible. With more than 45 lakh beneficiaries already deleted, there are more 28 lakh beneficiaries in the list.
Official sources maintained that the ineligible applicants are being identified with the help of the IBM Master Data Management (MDM) tool database of exclusion criteria including Government employees, income tax payers, vehicle owners and pensioners. In the meantime, the Government has suspended 37 Government employees for applying to be listed as beneficiaries. looking at the tough action of the Government, more than 40,000 employees have suo motto requested to delete their names from the list, said an official.