Bhubaneswar, Sept. 16: Saddled with the task of weeding out 76 lakh ineligible beneficiaries from the list of beneficiaries of National Food Security Act, the state government has so far been able to update data of 46 lakh or 60 per cent of the cases.
The government is still left with the job of excluding another 30 lakh applicants.
With the extended deadline for the implementation of the National Food Security Act approaching fast, the government today decided to distribute digitised ration cards from October 2 to the eligible beneficiaries in 14 districts, where the weeding out process is almost complete. Most of these districts are located in west and south Odisha.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will launch the distribution of ration cards. He has asked his ministers to distribute the cards at Gandhi Jayanti programmes in the districts. Food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma will distribute the ration cards in Malkangiri district.
However, the weeding out process still remains incomplete in 16 other districts, which are located mostly in coastal Odisha. In these districts, more than 55 lakh ineligible persons have applied for ration cards. Only 45 per cent of them have been excluded so far.
The state government has, therefore, decided to take up distribution of ration cards in these districts in the second phase from October 16 to 31.
The Centre had allowed the state to have 3.26 crore individuals (78 per cent of the total 4.21 crore population) to be beneficiaries under the scheme. Each beneficiary will be entitled to get 5 kg food grains every month.
However, much to the worry of the state government, 73 lakh additional applicants have claimed ration cards and they have to be weeded out.
The allurement for holding a ration card is the eligibility to get 5 kg rice every month for Rs 3 a kg.
However, income tax payees, government servants and people owning house with three rooms are debarred from getting this benefit. But that has not prevented them from applying for ration cards. This has forced the state government to crack the whip on its employees. So far, more than 40 government employees have faced action, with includes 17 from Ganjam district.
The government action led to thousands of government employees asking for deletion of their names from the list of beneficiaries. According to information available with the food supplies and consumer welfare department, so far 3.75 lakh families have withdrawn their applications for ration cards.
Giving an update, food supplies and consumer welfare secretary Madhusudan Padhi told The Telegraph: "The state government had targeted to weed out 73 lakh ineligible applicants. However, the district officials have identified more than 76 lakh persons. So far 46 lakh persons have been excluded."
Padhi said the final beneficiary list for Malkangiri and Nuapara was already in the public domain.
The list of another two districts - Jharsuguda and Kalahandi - would shortly follow suit.
In a related development, deadline for implementation of the National Food Security Act in Odisha has been extended by a month. The Act was supposed to be implemented from October 1.
The Centre has set conditions to place the final list of the beneficiaries in the public domain and distribute the digitised ration cards a fortnight before the implementation.
"The Centre had to make the new allocation of food grains according to the final list. But since the list has not been ready, we have sought time and the Centre has agreed," Padhi said.
