NFSA rice allocation reduced

IMPHAL, Apr 2 : Corres-ponding to low rate of seeding Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries and their family members with ration cards, rice allocation under National Food Security Act (NFSA) has been declining.
Speaking to media persons at his New Secretariat office today, CAF&PD Commissioner Bobby Waikhom said that seeding of Aadhaar numbers with ration cards of beneficiaries and their family members was done as per an order of the Supreme Court.
As majority of the beneficiaries were not interested in seeding their Aadhaar numbers with their ration cards, CAF&PD Department took up the Aadhaar seeding work in association with the respective district administrations since September/October last year.
As directed by the Government of India, the Aadhaar seeding work should have been completed by March this year, Bobby said.
Moreover, beneficiaries whose Aadhaar numbers were not seeded in their own ration cards by March should be removed from the list of beneficiaries.
However, majority of the beneficiaries were not very responsive to the Aadhaar seeding work. As a result, the number of beneficiaries declined considerably.
Subsequently, CAF&PD Ministry sent a letter to the State Government on March 26 and informed that the State’s monthly rice allocation under NFSA has been reduced to 10,610.645 tonnes.
The State’s monthly allocation of rice under NFSA in the previous month (February) was 13,507.405 tonnes.
As the rice allocation for the month of March is much lesser, the department is facing a very precarious situation and it may not be able to provide subsidised rice to all the people who were earlier listed as beneficiaries, Bobby said.
He said that beneficiaries whose ration cards have not been seeded with their Aadhaar numbers would be treated as bogus beneficiaries.
Even though the State’s monthly rice allocation has been reduced considerably due to beneficiaries’ aloofness from the Aadhaar seeding work, the department has written to the Ministry to ensure that all the genuine beneficiaries get subsidised rice, he said.
Meanwhile the department has initiated due process to distribute NFSA rice for the month of March to all the beneficiaries, he added.