For more than 1.42 crore people below the poverty line in Punjab, there will be no dearth of ration in the coming months. For, the Punjab Government has decided to distribute ration under its ambitious New Atta-Dal scheme for 10 months at one go.
As per the provisions under the Atta-Dal scheme, the State Government provides ration twice a year after six months in December and in June. However, this time, the Government has decided to distribute the ration for together 10 months.
“We have distributed the ration till November 2014. We have, now, decided to give away ration to the beneficiaries for 10 months at one go from December 1, 2014, till September 30, 2015,” a senior official of the State Food and Civil Supplies Department told The Pioneer, without disclosing the date from which the same would be distributed.
The official said that the instructions, in this regard, have been issued to all the officials concerned, besides the district level officers of the department.
As the real intention of the State Government’s “new plan” is unknown, the Atta-Dal scheme has often been seen as an attempt by the SAD-BJP Government to provide food for positive thought to its voters. Presently, the scheme is to provide subsidised ration to 1.42 crore beneficiaries.
“After the new Atta-Da scheme was rolled, the Government has started giving ration for a period of six months together so that the beneficiaries do not have to get ration every month,” said the official.
The beneficiaries under the Anatodya Ann Yojna (AAY) are eligible to get 35 kilograms of wheat per card, irrespective of the number of members or beneficiaries, while there is no such cap on the BPl card holders.
They are eligible to get five kgs of wheat per beneficiary with no upper limit at the rate of `one per kg and dal at the date of `20 per kg.
As of now, the State Government is in the process of linking the beneficiaries under the scheme with the Aadhar cards. In the process, only 70 lakh beneficiaries have come forward for identification, giving rise to speculations of large number of fake beneficiaries under the scheme.
Available information suggests that the Department has decided to put off the process of ration distribution to the “unidentified beneficiaries”, and its plans to distribute ration for 10 months together is a reason for the same.