BENGALURU: In a move to monitor the misuse of the Anna Bhagya scheme, the Karnataka government will not issue new applications for BPL cards for some time, as the authorities are verifying the existing card-holders, said Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa, during a review meeting with officials in Bengaluru on Friday.
He told the media that the authorities have transferred Rs 170 per person, instead of 5kg rice, to more than 1 crore cardholders. There are 28 lakh card-holders who are invalid for various reasons, including that the bank account was not linked to Aadhaar, deaths in the family were not been updated, or e-KYC was not done, besides other reasons.
Department officials said they had got details from RTOs on whiteboard cars. “Many BPL card-holders have luxury cars, houses and other facilities. Even government employees have got this benefit. These cards will be cancelled,” official sources said.
Muniyappa, however, said he has directed officials to sort out issues of genuine beneficiaries who have not linked their Aadhaar cards to bank accounts. Officials will identify heads of families and enable beneficiaries who don’t have bank accounts to open Indian Postal Payment Bank accounts, he said.
In the case of births, a provision has been made on the website to add names online. He directed officials to have a separate server if there are technical or slow server issues due to heavy load. Muniyappa said good quality grains should reach the beneficiaries, and officials should ensure quality rice, jowar and ragi, or action will be taken against them. He directed officials to check grains in godowns, and only if the quality is good, it should be released to PDS shops.
The minister further said that they are trying to procure rice from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,
and there will be some clarity on it in the next ten days. “Once we get the grains, we will start supplying rice as promised. Till then, we will continue to pay money till they procure rice,” he added.