Moga residents await smart ration cards

Quote: Paddy procurement caused delay

“Officials are busy in paddy procurement which has delayed distribution of cards. I have asked the department inspectors to supervise the distribution process.” – Sartaj Singh Cheema, district food and civil supplies controller

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, December 2

Two months ago, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had launched a project under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to distribute smart ration cards to 36 lakh families in the state, but thousands of poor families in Moga are still awaiting the benefits.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) alleged that the Food and Civil Supplies Department handed over the smart cards to Congress MLAs, who were distributing them to their near and dear ones.

Sartaj Singh Cheema, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller, Moga, said 17,000 families were selected in the city to get smart cards, but only 12,000 cards had been printed and 5,000 were in the printing process.

The department officials claimed that 5,000 smart cards had been distributed in the city, but leaders of both the parties alleged that the Congress was delaying the process, keeping in view the forthcoming Municipal Corporation elections.

Devinder Tiwari, former Akali Councillor, said: “The date of the Moga MC election is yet to be notified by the state. Local Congress MLA Harjot Kamal is on bed rest due to an injury. The Congress is trying to prolong the distribution process. They are waiting for the MLA to recover, so that he can personally distribute the cards and get political credit.”

The Tribune recently visited Ward Number 14 and 15, where local Congress leader Jagseer Singh Seera and his associates had launched the process to distribute smart cards at a ration depot. No official of the Food and Civil Supplies Department was present there. After distributing less than 50 cards, the Congress leaders left the spot in a few minutes. The local residents kept on coming to the depot, but they were not given cards.

Some of the visitors, Vasakha Singh, Devinder Singh, Harpreet Singh, Babbu Singh and Snehpal Singh, said the depot holder refused to give them the cards, claiming that the Congress leaders had taken the cards along with them. After waiting for a couple of hours, they, along with a group of at least 50 residents, left empty handed.

Deepinder Singh Sandhu, a former independent councillor, alleged that many poor residents of his ward, who had applied for new ration cards, had not got subsidised wheat through the PDS, ever since the cards were updated in February.

Last week, the state government distributed free wheat through the PDS, but many new beneficiaries could not get it as the already made smart cards were not given to them timely.

Cheema said the officials of the department were busy in paddy procurement due to which the process of distribution of cards was delayed. “I have asked the department inspectors to supervise the distribution of cards through depot holders,” he said.