Maharashtra: 8 lakh people stopped taking PDS ration in last 5 months

People queue up at a ration shop at Aarey Colony. File pic

With COVID-19 bringing along unimaginable hardship, it was expected that the public would make the best use of the government's public distribution scheme. However, officials found that 7.9 lakh ration cardholders haven't collected food grain from state-authorised shops across Maharashtra in the past five months.

People queue up at a ration shop at Kurla. File pic

The anomaly has prompted authorities to suspect that the cardholders are either ineligible or bogus as the system has been linked with Aadhaar. The government has asked district officials to scrutinise the suspect cases and cancel the ration cards in case of any violation. Of the 7.9 lakh cases, Thane district topped the list with 1,10,555 questionable ration cardholders. In Mumbai, Wadala region had 87,182 such beneficiaries.

For better transparency in distribution of foodgrains through fair price shops, the government has digitised the PDS system by linking ration cardholders to their Aadhaar numbers. The shops also use biometric data for identification of genuine beneficiaries. "Since the cardholders have not taken ration from government shops between August and December 2020, we believe they are ineligible or fake or not interested," said a government official.

In Vasai Taluka, there are 3,77,000 beneficiaries of Antyodaya Yojana, while 1,27,666 have been registered as BPL (below poverty line) cardholders. Of these, 18,146 did not show up at ration shops for nearly half a year. "We have put these people under the Not Entitled for Ration [NER] bracket. We will take an undertaking from them if they come for ration in future. They will be declared ineligible if they don't produce valid documents," said Roshan Kapse, the local supply inspector.

7.9 lakh
No. of cardholders who haven't turned up at ration shops in past five months