Smart card to replace Blue Card in Punjab

Ashok Kaura

Phillaur, February 5

Blue Cards would be replaced with Smart Ration Cards. General secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Vikramkit Singh Chaudhary said this here today while distributing food grains at village sVirk and Guhawar in Phillaur constituency.

There are 32,000 card holders in Phillaur area, to whom 36,000 quintals of foodgrain would be distributed in the coming days, Chaudhary said while distributing foodgrain to 2,644 poor in Virk village and 2,100 in Guhawar village of the constituency.

Under the new Smart Ration Card scheme, no deserving family would be left out and all those who are eligible would be included without any discrimination, he said.

He said CM Capt Amarinder Singh has ordered replacing the Atta-Dal scheme cards, which had the pictures of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and the then food and supplies minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon, with smart cards.

“The old cards are invalid. The CM has already ordered a review of the beneficiaries of the scheme,” Chaudhary said, adding that the beneficiaries would be provided with food grain without any discrimination and the new Smart Card would exclude the huge number of “fake” blue card holders during the SAD-BJP regime.

“Whenever a Congress government takes over, either at the Centre or in state, such welfare schemes come into effect,” Chaudhary said while appealing to the gathering to expose the anti-poor policies of the Modi government and vote for the Congress in the coming parliamentary elections.