Dispose ofF ration card applications expeditiously for timely payment of assistance: CM to officials

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on

Sunday instructed officials to clear pending applications for ration cards expeditiously so that financial assistance of Rs 1,000 could be transfered to every card holding families accounts to help them deal with hardship due to lockdown necessitated by coronavirus outbreak.

Kumar gave the direction at a review meeting on the coronavirus outbreak with the Chief Secretary and other senior officials here.

Ration card applications which have been rejected or are pending should be reviewed afresh. Those which have been accepted but cards not issued to the beneficiaries must be disposed off quickly after examining them so that the beneficiaries avail the assistance/relief provided by the state government in view of the situation arising out of the coronavirus, Kumar said in a release.

 

He ordered the officials to complete the verification of applications within three days to ensure that beneficiaries get assistance at the earliest, the release said.

It may be noted that Kumar had on April 3 asked officials to ensure providing financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to each ration card holding families by completing the aadhaar seeding of their cards at the earliest.

While reviewing the issue of providing agriculture input subsidy to the affected farmers for their crop damage due to untimely rains/hailstorm in the month of March, the CM directed the officials to immediately transfer the agriculture input subsidy amount into the farmers accounts for which the state government has already sanctioned Rs 518.42 crore.

A decision has been taken to give Rs 1,000 as special assistance to each individual hailing from the state, who have been stranded in other states due to a nationwide lockdown, Kumar said.

He directed officials to speed up the process of verification of applications received from those stuck outside the state and transfer the amount into their accounts.

People should not to get panicky as the government is taking every possible measures to tackle with the problem of COVID-19, the CM said while exhorting them o stay indoors.