Guwahati, July 29: More than 300 ghost Gram Panchayat Samabay Samiti (GPSS) and fair-price shops are collecting rice under the public distribution system in Assam.

Officials of the food and civil supplies department estimated that the number of bogus beneficiaries might be as high as one-fourth of the total beneficiaries who receive subsidised rice under the public distribution system.

According to government records, there are 812 Gram Panchayat Samabay Samitis and such agencies authorised to lift rice from the districts to distribute them among BPL families.

The matter came to light while digitalising the data of beneficiaries and food-lifting agencies.

The digitalisation is part of the implementation of the National Food Security Act that stresses on making the food allocation process online.

"As part of the process, officials of the food and civil supplies department from each district were invited here recently. Data was taken from them about the number of samabay samitis and fair price shops. Astoundingly, the number is much more than what is there in official records," said a source.

The source said there were no detailed addresses or contact numbers of these bogus GPSS and fair-price shops. A large number of them are in chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal's home constituency - Majuli.

According to the data submitted by the officials, it was found that 905 GPSS and 215 fair-price shops are directly lifting rice from the districts.

This means that 308 agencies, which are not listed in government records, are collecting rice.

"It is surprising that it took so many years for Dispur to find that such a huge number of bogus agencies were collecting rice. Dispur had been allotting rice as demanded by the districts. The data was never updated and crosschecked," said the source.

"If we can collect correct data of the beneficiaries and remove the bogus agencies and fair-price shops, the requirement of rice will be much less than what it is now," the source.

The matter has come to light at a time when the Centre increased the amount of rice to 1,35,479 tonnes a month to Assam from this month.

The amount was 1,30,233 tonnes till last month.

The discrepancy in the data has halted the process of online allocation of rice under the Food Security Act.

Although the Act was implemented in December last year, the online allocation system is yet to be completed.

While the state government has been accusing the National Informatics Centre for the delay, the centre has been repeatedly requesting the state government to provide correct data.

Official documents said Majuli, Udalguri, Tezpur, Dhemaji, Jonai, Sivasagar and Charaideo are some of the subdivisions where some fair-price shops are lifting rice directly from the corporation to distribute among beneficiaries.

According to the system, a fair price shop should collect rice from samabay samitis and not the corporation.

Sources said Dima Hasao district has been ignoring repeated requests from Dispur to send data on its beneficiaries.

This is adding to the delay in making a complete databank of beneficiaries.