11 lakh beneficiaries stand to lose free wheat as Punjab adopts Centre’s criteria

After proclaiming that it will not delete beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the Punjab Government has now adopted the Centre’s criteria to exclude individual members of families from the scheme.

As per the new criteria, as many as 11 lakh beneficiaries stand to lose receiving free wheat under the NFSA as the state government has issued a notification, listing the criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of beneficiaries.

The notification, issued on Friday, states that all income taxpayers, those who pay the GST, service tax and professional tax or own a motorised four-wheeler or air conditioners will be excluded from the list of those receiving the free foodgrains. The notification, which is an amendment to the Punjab Food Security Rules, 2016, also states that it is being issued with the approval of the Chief Minister.

At present, Punjab has 1.52 crore beneficiaries who get free wheat under the NFSA.

While marginal farmers have been spared (those owning less than 2.5 acres of land), small farmers having between 2.5 acre and 5 acres of land will also be excluded from getting free foodgrains. As many as 8.16 lakh farmers were registered in Punjab during the last paddy season, of whom only 2.93 lakh were marginal farmers. The remaining 5.23 lakh beneficiaries, including small farmers, will no longer be eligible for free foodgrains under the new formula.

State government officials, however, say the notification has been issued only to collate the existing inclusion and exclusion criteria. “Moreover, the notification mentions that only those individuals will be deleted, who fall in the exclusion criteria, while others in the family will continue to get free wheat,” said a senior officer in the department. He said the CM had also formed a three-member committee comprising the Secretary, Food and Supplies, Secretary, Agriculture, and the Taxation Commissioner to have a relook at the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Once the panel forms the new criteria, the verification according to this criteria will be carried out and only then the ineligible beneficiaries will be weeded out.

Among other beneficiaries placed in the list of exclusion criteria, as per the notification of the Food and Supplies Department, are families of all government employees, any household which owns and operates a registered enterprise; any household having an annual income of over Rs 1.80 lakh and any household owning a house built on a plot of over 100 square yards or a flat of over 750 square feet area.

When the Centre had initially flagged the issue of suspicious beneficiaries, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said he would not allow any beneficiary to be deleted. The Centre had initially given the state government time till September 30 to verify the suspicious beneficiaries. However, the Punjab Government had sought six-month time to complete the verification, saying officials would be busy in paddy procurement operations.

Who all will be left out

The notification, issued on Friday, states that all income taxpayers, those who pay the GST, service tax and professional tax or own a motorised four-wheeler or air conditioners will be excluded from the list of those receiving free foodgrains.