More than 15 lakh people below poverty line (BPL) deprived of benefits under National Food Security Act (NFSA) would soon get subsidized ration under a proposed state-sponsored scheme, which will be known as Jharkhand State Food Security (JSFS) scheme.
The Jharkhand Cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod clearing the proposal of Jharkhand State Food Security (JSFS) scheme, under which a person who is BPL and not receiving food grains from public distribution scheme will get 5 kilogram of food grains every month at Re 1 per kg. The State cabinet on Tuesday which gave its nod to 29 proposals including Jharkhand State Food Security (JSFS) scheme has earmarked Rs 213 crore for the scheme.
The State Government has asked districts to select beneficiaries under the scheme. Sources said that around 57 lakh households covering 2.63 crore people, around 80 per cent of the State’s population, have been receiving rice at Re 1 per kg in Jharkhand under National Food Security Act. The government attempt is to fill this 20 per cent gap so that left over people get ration.
Sources said that there are around 22 lakh people who have applied for ration cards under the NFSA, 15 lakh would be accommodated under the state sponsored scheme, while vacancy would be created in the NFSA to accommodate rest of the people.
Department of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs secretary Arun Singh said, “The state government for the scheme will create awareness among people at the same time there will be advertisements in newspapers so that a large number of people can enroll in the scheme.”
Meanwhile, the state government is going to speed up the pace for linking ration cards with Aadhar. The Department has set the target of linking all ration cards with Aadhar by August 15, but only 35 per cent ration cards are linked with Aadhar.
Singh said, “We will give pace to process so that all ration cards are linked with Aadhar.” The ration card beneficiaries have to link their ration card with Aadhar at PDS dealer outlets.
Once the entire ration cards are linked with Aadhar the next step will be to roll out one nation one ration card scheme.” Singh claimed that with one nation one ration card scheme the biggest beneficiaries will be consumers as they will be able to procure their quota of ration from any part of Country.
The system will enable migrant workers and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country.