13,000 Happy Cards await beneficiaries at Karnal bus stand
Around 13,000 Happy Cards, an initiative which aims at providing free travel of up to 1,000 km per year in government buses to families with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh or less, are lying uncollected at the Karnal bus stand, waiting for beneficiaries to claim these. These cards have been generated under the Haryana Antyodaya Parivar Parivahan Yojana (HAPPY), which was launched by former CM Manohar Lal Khattar on March 7, 2024 in a state-level programme held in Panchkula. Later on June 7, CM Nayab Singh Saini distributed these cards at a state-level function in Karnal.
As per the officials, under the scheme, the benefit of free travel will be provided to 22.89 lakh families, covering around 84 lakh persons. Benefits include all family members listed under the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) with an annual income of up to Rs 1 lakh. The beneficiaries are issued a smart card linked to the e-ticketing system to enable free travel in the Haryana Roadways buses. The e-ticketing system is based on the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) in an open loop. HAPPY Card is a special version of the NCMC Card to enable the beneficiary to travel for free.
In Karnal district, as many as 1.18 lakh HAPPY Cards were generated. The Haryana Roadways Karnal depot has launched a massive outreach programme to distribute these cards. Its teams visited villages and around 1.05 lakh HAPPY Cards have already been distributed, while around 13,000 are lying at the Karnal bus stop and nearly 500 at the Assandh sub-bus depot.
“We have been making efforts to distribute these cards. Special drive was also launched under which team members reached out to the beneficiaries in both rural and urban areas, but scores of people did not collect their cards there. Phone calls are also being made to inform people about their cards, but hardly 200 persons have come forward daily to collect their cards,” said Kuldeep Singh, GM, Haryana Roadways, Karnal Depot. He said that they had also faced the issue of change of addresses.
