Left-out family members being added in ration cards: Minister

The Jammu and Kashmir Government said on Thursday that the addition of eligible left-out family members in ration cards is being done on a regular basis in the UT.

Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Satish Sharma, said this in the J-K Assembly on Thursday in response to a question raised by MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia.

The minister said that as many as 98.52 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY), Priority Household (PHH) and Non-Priority Household (NPHH) beneficiaries have been covered under the PM Ration Yojna in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that the department is contemplating opening of new fair price shops as per the framework in vogue, which is part of Jammu and Kashmir Targeted Public Distribution System.

The minister said that since the elected government has assumed office, it has been thought prudent to rope in elected members also to firm up requirements of new fair price shops across Jammu and Kashmir, which necessitates relook of the existing framework.

He said that bifurcation of ration cards has been stopped as necessitated for adhering to targets assigned for coverage of families under the Public Distribution System, particularly AAY households, by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, where the entitlement is at the scale of 35 kg per household.

The minister also said that the process of bifurcating rations cards through issuance of fresh ration cards would lead to implications of arranging additional foodgrains for such new households. He said that this also has implications in increasing the burden for the department under other schemes being run by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and in other schemes of the government where Public Distribution System database is utilised and household is the unit of entitlement. However, addition of eligible left-out family members is being done on regular basis in their household ration cards.

The minister said that the government has also included the children born after 2011 up to 2016 in respective household ration cards to further augment the food needs of such households.

The minister further informed the House that 8.72 beneficiaries in AAY category, 58.1 in PHH category and 31.7 beneficiaries in NPHH category have been covered under PM Ration Yojna in J&K.