Jharkhand has achieved 100 per cent target of identification of beneficiaries and issuing ration card under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) as against national average of 96.92 per cent. Total accepted number of families under AAY in Jharkhand is 9,17,900 and all the families have been identified and issued ration card.
Out of total 2.50 crore accepted number of AAY families in the country, 2.42 crore families have been identified and issued ration cards under AAY by various State Governments in the country. Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution informed Rajya Sabha on Friday, in reply to a question from Parimal Nathwani.
Nathwani wanted to know about the norms/guidelines adopted for identification of Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) families in the country, the total number of beneficiaries covered under AAY and whether Government has received any request from the States for increasing the number of beneficiaries under this scheme.
The minister also stated that apart from Jharkhand Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, also achieved 100 per cent target of identifying beneficiaries and issuing ration cards under AAY.
The minister informed that requests have been received from a few State Governments to increase number of beneficiaries under AAY, but it could not be acceded to, as the number is fixed for every State. He also said that States/UTs are advised from time to time to review the existing list of AAY beneficiaries and remove the ineligible beneficiaries so as to include only the most eligible.
The minister stated that as per the guidelines issued by the Government, the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) families are to be identified by States/Union Territories (UTs). According to the statement issued in the parliament, households headed by widows or terminally ill persons/disabled persons/ persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support, widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence get benefit of AAY scheme.
Besides, all primitive tribal households, landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/ craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas and all eligible Below Poverty line (BPl)
families of HIV positive persons are eligible for the scheme, said the minister.