Ration Card– Major setback for lakhs of Ration Card holder’s. The Madhya Pradesh government has taken an important step to improve the free food grain scheme being given under the Food Security Act. To prevent fraud in the free ration distribution scheme, the state government has started a special campaign of e-KYC in the state. Under this process, so far 15 lakh such ration card holders have been identified, who are either no longer alive or have not visited the centers to get ration for the last four months.
83 lakh people do not have e-KYC
According to the information received from the Food Department, e-KYC of about 83 lakh people is still pending in the state. Out of these, 3 to 4 lakh names may be fake or duplicate. The names of many people have been found registered at two places, while there are some who have not been taking ration for years. These will be removed and new eligible people will be added so that the benefits of the scheme reach the right hands.
This scrutiny of the food security scheme is being done through e-KYC. Under this process, every beneficiary is being identified through Aadhaar based biometric verification, so that it can be ensured that only eligible people are taking advantage of the ration. The campaign for e-KYC will run till 31 May. This will now provide opportunities to new eligible beneficiaries.
Let us tell you that every month 2.90 lakh tonnes of food grains are being distributed free of cost in the state, which includes 1.74 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.16 lakh tonnes of wheat. Now the government has demanded from the Center to reduce the quota of rice and increase wheat after the purchase of wheat is completed.