Ration cards of 230,000 families reissued after verification: CM Khattar

Ration cards of 2.30 lakh families "erroneously" discontinued over income-related errors in the Parivar Pehchan Patra have been reissued after a thorough verification process, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

Khattar also said that the state government is committed to economically uplifting the poor and needy, according to an official statement issued on Sunday.

Devoted efforts have been made to ensure that the benefits of every single welfare scheme reach the actual beneficiaries. The biggest example of these steps can be gauged from the fact that ration cards of 2.30 lakh families whose cards were erroneously deleted due to income-related errors in the Parivar Pehchan Patra have been reissued, said Khattar while interacting with some of such ration card holders through audio conferencing on Saturday.

He said the BJP-led government is continuously working for the welfare of those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.

Khattar further stated that in January 2023 itself, the beneficiaries who claimed that their ration card benefits have been discontinued were requested to register their complaints through a designated portal.

After receiving the complaints, the ration cards of about 2.30 lakh families were reissued after a thorough verification process. Besides this, free ration of January month has also been given to all such families, said the statement.

Our policies and intentions are very clear. No eligible beneficiary will be left out to get their due benefits, the chief minister said.

According to the statement, the beneficiaries thanked the chief minister and said that the manner, in which their ration cards were reissued by taking quick action on the complaint raised before the chief minister regarding the discontinuation of ration benefits, shows the accountability and sensitivity of the government towards the beneficiaries.

Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP), a family information data depository, is an e-governance scheme to promote paperless and faceless delivery of services to citizens, according to the state government.

The statement said that inspired by the request made by Chief Minister Khattar to the families who have risen above the BPL limit to leave their benefits for those who actually deserve it, Ambala resident Ajay Kumar, a mechanic by profession promised Khattar that the day his annual income will increase above Rs 1.80 lakh, he himself would give up all the benefits he is getting from the government.

The chief minister said that many times the government has received complaints that the ration cards of actual beneficiaries have not been made, while the ineligible were taking the benefits.

He said that in a bid to address all such complaints, a first-of-its-kind initiative was started by the state government and PPP cards of about 72 lakh families were generated. Not only this, the income eligibility criterion for a BPL family was increased to Rs 1.80 lakh annually from Rs. 1.20 lakh, the CM said.

After all these procedures, the process of making the ration cards through PPP was started and in January, about 12.5 lakh new ration cards have been made. Now only eligible people are getting the benefits of government facilities, said Khattar.

He said that it also came to the notice of the state government that some families which were earlier included in the BPL category have become financially strong. Besides this, it was also found that some members of these families who have now risen above the BPL slab had also got a job and were paying income tax as well, he said.

The chief minister said that the Mukhyamantri Antyodaya Parivar Utthan Yojana has been started for the economic upliftment of the very poor families of the state whose income is less than Rs 1 lakh per annum. Under this, loans are being provided to the members of such families for self-employment, he said.