Question : Receipt of Ration Card by the Poor

(a) whether the people living below the poverty line have not received ration cards due to which these poor people are deprived of the schemes of the Government of India related to public distribution, if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
(b) whether ineligible persons are misusing the ration cards to be given to the people living below the poverty line under Public Distribution System with the connivance of panchayat/officials of the villages and the corrupt officers; and
(c) whether the Government has given directions to launch a drive at the Central level in this regard and if so, the outcome thereof including the extent to which action has been taken on these instructions?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
(SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY)
(a) to (b): Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State/UT Governments. Central Govt. is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of foodgrains upto the designated depots of the FCI. The operational responsibilities for allocation and distribution of foodgrains within the States/UTs, identification of eligible beneficiaries/families, issuance of ration cards to them and supervision and monitoring of functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) rest with the concerned State/UT Government. Under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), the criteria for identification of beneficiaries/ households has been de-linked from poverty estimates i.e. BPL/APL categories, instead 75% of Rural and 50% of Urban population is now covered to receive highly subsidized foodgrains through PDS under two categories namely: Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH). Inclusion and exclusion criteria of beneficiaries covered under AAY and PHH has been evolved by respective State/UT Governments. Further, due to digitization of ration cards/beneficiaries and seeding of Aadhaar numbers with ration cards under End-to-End Computerization of PDS Operations scheme, State/UT Governments have been able to delete/cancel about 2.75 Crore ration cards during the period 2013 to 2017.
(c): This Department has issued instructions vide letter dated 17-11-2017 to all State/UT Governments inter-alia requesting them to launch a special drives to identify and issue ration cards to persons of the weakest section of the society.
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