The departments of food and civil supply in the State have almost completed works related to digitisation of new ration cards under National Food Security Scheme. The State Government has set October 1 as the deadline for the implementation of the scheme in the State. Notably, if National Food Security (NFS) Act is implemented in the State, around 62 lakh State’s population would be covered under it and they would be given five kgs of food grains, comprising three kilos of rice and two kilos of wheat per person at the rate of Rs three and Rs two per kg for rice and wheat, respectively.
The senior department officers are likely to submit a report about cent per cent digitisation of new ration cards in the first week of September to the Centre. They would seek food grains under the scheme from the Centre to be given to the beneficiaries from October 1, it is learnt.
Dehradun food and civil supply officer PS Pangti said that the department has almost completed works (99.03 per cent) related to digitisation of new ration cards under NFSS in the district.
As per the report received from the food and civil supply headquarters, around 99.56 per cent work of digitisation of new ration cards have been completed across the state. Cent per cent works have been completed in Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Haridwar, Chamoli, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts while officers of the remaining districts- Dehradun, Tehri, Almora and Pauri -are working hard to complete it within a week.
The food and civil supply officer further said that the application forms, rejected by the Central Government, were filled up again by the department officials concerned after conducting verification of such forms.
Around 13.071 lakh families who had applied in the department have been selected under this scheme and they have been given the new ration cards accordingly.
Earlier, state principal secretary (food and civil supply) Radha Raturi had directed the officers to digitise works of new ration cards while stressing that the matter is right in the Chief Minister’s agenda. She had also
directed the district magistrates to complete the work on priority basis.
It may be mentioned here that after launching of National Food Security Scheme on August 20, 2013 in the state, then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had distributed ration kits to 100 women beneficiaries, announcing that under the scheme, the economically unprivileged people would get five kgs of foodgrains from November 9 the same year.
However, things did not start off as assured because of the failure of the departments of food and civil supply to complete works related to digitisation of new ration cards under the scheme. The Centre’s direction on this scheme is clear- the implementation process would start only after digitisation works are completed. BPl and Antyodaya card holders have also been included in the scheme as beneficiaries. APl section having monthly income `15,000 would also benefit after being provided with the new ration
cards under the scheme, the officials of the State food and supply department said.