As many as 1,25,070ration card holdersin various categories have voluntarily surrendered their cards to the government till July 31, after the government urged them tosurrenderif they do not fall in various eligible categories.
In order to weed out the remaining ineligible card holders, the civil supplies department has launched aWhatsAppnumber by which the public can inform any such information about ineligible card holders.
Till July, out of the 5,85,977Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY) cards distributed in the state, 9,935 cards have been surrendered and brought under non-priority non-subsidy (NPNS) category, who are offered rice and wheat at regular, non-subsidised rates.
The state had implemented theNational Food Securities Act, 2013, on November 1, 2016. As per the Act, the state has 4,228 fair-price shops (authorized ration dealers ARD) with 90,86,816 card holders. The total number of beneficiaries under the system is 3,57,42,768 (as per the estimates, each card has 4.2 beneficiaries in the state).
As many as 5,95,800 cards under the AAY are allowed in the state, of which the state has already distributed 5,85,977 cards. The remaining 9,823 cards can be distributed to 41,256 beneficiaries. Also, as per the NFSA, the total number of cards that can be distributed in the priority household category is 1,54,80,040.