Beneficiaries were not found at addresses mentioned in their records or were unable to produce relevant documents
Indicating the extent of the rot in one of India’s largest welfare schemes, the state government has scrapped almost 40,000 ration cards, including those of ghost beneficiaries in Mumbai and Thane. It has also suspended 1.20 lakh cards in the region, leading to a saving of around 1,000 metric tons of grain being cornered by these dubious beneficiaries in the public distribution system (PDS).
Avinash Subhedar, controller of rationing and director of civil supplies, told DNA that while the Mumbai- Thane region (MTR) had 19.34 lakh ration cards under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, a total of 37,400 cards had been cancelled so far. These scrapped cards cover 1,39,193 beneficiaries. Another 1.20 lakh cards have been suspended by the authorities with the holders being given time to present their case.
This came after door-to-door surveys wherein families were not found to be living at addresses mentioned in their records or were unable to produce relevant documents. The entitlements of such people are suspended and if they are unable to provide evidence in a month, the cards are cancelled.
Food and civil supplies officials said the numbers of cancelled and suspended cards was likely to rise once the project to establish biometric point of sale (PoS) machines in fair-price shops to authenticate beneficiaries and eradicate ghost beneficiaries and pilferage was completed. This quota can be re-allocated to new beneficiaries.
“The in-migration and out-migration in Greater Mumbai is huge. When people come to Mumbai, they get ration cards in their name, but do not cancel these cards when they leave for their native places,” said Subhedar, adding that deaths of beneficiaries and bogus beneficiaries had also led to cards being scrapped or suspended.
The MTR, which covers Mumbai and urban areas of Thane like Thane, Kalyan Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar and Badlapur, has around 5,000 fair price shops. “The beneficiaries whose ration cards have been suspended have been given time to present their documents and Aadhaar cards failing which their entitlements will be scrapped,” he added.
An official said that the drive launched six month ago had led to a monthly saving of 426 metric tons of rice and 645 metric tons of wheat so far. The MTR has a monthly demand for 17,300 MT of rice and 26,000 MT wheat.
A similar exercise to screen the 18,45,370 PDS card holders who are entitled to kerosene had led a decline in the monthly demand from the previous 10,700 kilo litres (KL) to 5,725 KL. Officials screened the database of oil marketing companies (OMCs) for details of people who had LPG connections and were ineligible to get PDS kerosene.
Maharashtra has around 2.48 crore ration cards, covering 7.016 crore targeted beneficiaries (of an 11.23 crore population) under the NFSA. The act covers up to 75% of the rural and up to 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidized food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
Sources said plans were underway to rationalise the beneficiary criteria by linking it to the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011, to ensure that benefits flowed to the needy and ineligible beneficiaries were weeded out. This would also set the template for other schemes.
They added this was necessary as the present list of beneficiaries was almost two-decades old with possibilities that several ineligible people were securing entitlements at the cost of the deserving.
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