NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will start a door-to-door survey from next month to track ration cards that have been inactive for the last two-three months, Food and Supply Minister Imran Hussain said on Friday.
According to food department officials, ration cards, which remain inactive for consecutive three months, are liable to be cancelled. Inactive ration cards are those where beneficiaries do not collect subsidised ration from the fair price shops continuously for three months.
“We will conduct a door-to-door survey from next month to check beneficiaries who are not collecting ration from two-three months. We will check if the person has gone to his hometown or is sick. In such cases, ration card will not be disconnected,” said Hussain.
“If the card is inactive and the person does not exist or has left Delhi, then we will cancel the inactive cards and include new ones.” He added that any beneficiary’s ration card will not be cancelled without any valid reason. All factors behind not collecting ration will be thoroughly checked.
The minister said that through Electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) machines, the department will have data about beneficiaries who are contentiously not collecting ration. Delhi had suspended the use of e-PoS in early 2018, following complaints of poor network leading to authentication failures and exclusion of genuine beneficiaries.
“There will be some people who must have not come in July but collected ration in August and some must have skipped August but taken food grains in September. We will spare those cards that did not collect
ration for one or two months,” Hussain said.
Another category to be excluded from action will be outstation beneficiaries who are unable to collect their cards. Officials said that after the survey is completed, the department will have exact data about inactive cards.