CHANDIGARH: The AAP-led government is facing a new challenge with six months to go for the 2027 assembly election as nearly 19.50 lakh people have applied for the new ration cards almost double the 10 lakh cards announced this year.
At present there are around 41.47 lakh ration-card holders and 1.54 crore beneficiaries according to the state’s ration-card management system.
The surge follows the Punjab Government’s decision to relax the eligibility conditions. On July 22, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced that 10 lakh new ration cards would be issued.
Thus the maximum application are from Ludhiana at 2.25 lakh, followed by Amritsar 1.81 lakh, then Jalandhar (1.42 lakh), Gurdaspur (1.39 lakh), Patiala (1.35 lakh) and Hoshiarpur (1.20 lakh). Meanwhile Fatehgarh Sahib recorded the lowest number, with around 28,500 applications. As in six districts, applications crossed the one-lakh mark.
The attraction of getting new ration cards is due to the fact that as the card holders are entitled to benefits under both state and Centre’s schemes. While the Punjab Government provides ration kits under the Meri Rasoi scheme, the Union Government provides 5 kg of wheat per beneficiary every month under the food subsidy programme.
The relaxation given under the scheme to sections of relatively well-off households that were earlier excluded under norms based on the Union Government’s criteria. The measures included raising the annual income ceiling for eligibility to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 1.80 lakh and making households possessing vehicles and land eligible in certain cases, subjects to other criteria.
Sources said that as the number of applications is almost double the number of new ration cards which can be issued thus now a scheme has been prepared so that the merit list of applicants has been devised. This is based on this merit list that the food and civil supplies department of the state government will accommodate 7 to 10 lakh eligible beneficiaries.
Sources further added that the deputy commissioners in all districts had begun scrutinising the applications, with the verification process scheduled to be completed by September 30.
Am officer said that around 700 verifying officers had been deployed in each district to scrutinise the applications. Since the number of applications exceeds the number of cards announced by the government, merit criteria have been formulated for selection. The criteria assign additional marks to certain categories. "For instance, applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes and those suffering from serious illnesses have been assigned 10 merit points each, among other parameters," he explained.
Irked over being repeatedly assigned non-teaching duties, teacher associations across Punjab have refused to undertake verification of new ration cards as some teachers had already received notices after not joining the assignments.
The teacher associations have decided to stop taking up non-essential non-teaching assignments and focus only on teaching. They will, however, continue with duties under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) and the second phase of the Census, scheduled from December 1 to January 5, 2027, with rehearsals beginning in November.
The teachers said the mounting non-teaching workload had left them with little time for classroom teaching this year, adversely affecting students’ studies. They submitted memorandums in various districts formally declining ration-card verification duties.
Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) state president Digvijay Pal Sharma said that the teachers had been engaged in Census operations from April to June 15, followed by SIR from June 25, besides drug surveys and duties for municipal elections. "More than 28,000 teachers were assigned duties as BLOs, assistant BLOs, sector officers and supervisors under SIR. Now nearly 60,000 teachers will have to perform Census duties for 36 days from December 1 to January 5. While performing such non-teaching duties, they could not do justice to their main avocation of teaching students, which was sheer injustice to students even as we were asked to increase enrolment," Sharma said.
"During our over 20 years of teaching careers, we have not witnessed such a large number of non-teaching assignments. We are fed up now and have decided not to perform ration-card verification duties even if we are suspended," he said.
Punjab Education minister Harjot Singh Bains said that the government feels that teachers should be spared from this duty as they are already into SIR and other duties. Instructions are being given to deputy commissioners to assign duties for verifying ration cards to employees from other departments.
Meanwhile the Anganwadi Mulazam Union Punjab, Ludhiana unit, has opposed the proposal to assign anganwadi workers the task of verifying blue ration cards, saying that the additional duty would further increase their workload.
The union said anganwadi workers and helpers were already handling a large number of department responsibilities and should not be burdened with work unrelated to their regular duties and demanded that they should not be assigned the duty of ration card verification, checking applications for new ration cards or adding members to existing cards. It also sought an end to the alleged pressure being put on workers at the field level.
The union warned that it would be forced to launch an agitation if the additional duties were not withdrawn and added that any consequences arising from such a protest would be the responsibility of the Punjab Government.
