Re-examine Atta-DAL beneficiary list, says CM
Wednesday, 19/04/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=175838&boxid=59011&uid=&dat=2017-04-19
Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ordered re-verification of the list of Blue Card beneficiaries of Atta-Dal scheme to make it more targeted and comprehensive, while directing it to be linked with Aadhar card. The list will also include families of farmers who had committed suicide and landless labourers.
A decision to this effect was taken at a review meeting of the Department of Food & Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, chaired by Chief Minister. It was decided at the meeting to scale up the scheme by converting the existing Blue Cards to Smart Ration Cards to make them functionally more advanced, and also to rid the existing cards of the political tag attached to them by previous SAD-BJP regime which added 7 lakh beneficiaries in last 6-7 months of its tenure.
With an estimated 2-3 per cent of the total 1.39 crore beneficiaries reported to be un-deserving and included in the list only due to their political affiliations, CM directed the department to check the list to weed out the undeserving beneficiaries.
The meeting also decided that no photographs of politicians will be put on the new smart cards to be issued to the beneficiaries. The Chief Minister asked the department to define a clear and transparent system of creating and distributing the card to ensure that only genuine beneficiaries get access to its benefits.
It has also been decided to regularise and streamline the distribution process in view of the fact that since August 2014, cereals have been distributed under the scheme quite erratically only for the months of January-March 2016 and December 2016.
Highlights
Existing Blue Cards will be converted into Smart Ration Cards.
SAD-BJP regime added 7 lakh beneficiaries in last 6-7 months.
No photographs of politicians will be put on new smart cards.
