Ration dole may come back to bite AAP

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 17

Gurpreet Singh, a young daily wager in Moharsinghwala village near Bhikhi in Mansa, does not take even a second to respond to the query regarding the deciding factor for him to cast his vote.

“Our free ration has stopped. Card kateya gaya. Fer hun tak dobara nahin baneya. Jehre garib kamzor ne, ohi mare gaye. Jehra vada banda si, us ne aape afsar saambh laya te card bacha leya. (My name was deleted from the list of beneficiaries. Only the poorest of poor were excluded, while those who were genuinely not in need of rations continue to get these),” he said.

Freebie stopped, voters annoyed

• Snags in the implementation of the National Food Security Scheme is becoming a major deciding factor for voters in the rural areas of Punjab
• On Friday, the government issued instructions to field officers to not get the grains ground into atta, but just deliver the grains as such so as to avoid annoying the public
• The officers have been given a target to finish distribution of wheat for April by May 25

In numbers

1.54 cr Number of beneficiaries under NFSA

10.77 lakh Beneficiaries whose cards were deleted in 2022

3.5 lakh Beneficiaries re-enrolled by govt

Till Wednesday, 33.63% of free atta has been distributed in Fatehgarh Sahib, 36.84% in Ferozepur, 31.06% in Pathankot, 22.23% in Muktsar and 20.68% in Patiala

The snags in the implementation of the “just wrapped in new cloak” National Food Security Scheme (NFSA) is becoming a major deciding factor for voters in the rural areas of Punjab during this Lok Sabha election. So much so that today itself, the government has issued instructions to the field officers to not get the grains ground into atta, but just deliver the grains as such so as to avoid annoying the public. The officers have been given a target to finish distribution of wheat for April and May by May 25.

Ever since the Doorstep Delivery of Rations was introduced earlier this year, it was decided that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries (of a total of 1.54 crore) would get atta instead of wheat.

Sources in Markfed, the agency that has been tasked to implement the new doorstep delivery of rations, say that the issue is becoming bigger and before many candidates of the ruling party go to villages to seek votes, they ensure that the grains or atta in these villages is delivered for the fear of people haggling the candidates.

The reasons, say officials, is that before the wheat harvest, the old stocks were less, affecting distribution. Also, as of now, the government has enrolled few flour mills for making atta, leading to distribution delays.

After Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power in 2022, a survey was conducted to weed out fake beneficiaries from the food security scheme. As many as 10.77 lakh beneficiaries were found to be fake and their names were deleted from the list of beneficiaries. However in January, as parliamentary elections neared, the AAP government announced it would restore the distribution of free ration to these 10.77 lakh beneficiaries, saying that these beneficiaries were being temporarily included till the results of a de novo survey of beneficiaries comes out. This restoration of beneficiaries was announced just before the government implemented the doorstep delivery scheme. However, only 3.5 lakh could be re-enrolled before the model code of conduct came in force.