BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is all set to launch digitisation of ration cards of beneficiaries on a pilot basis for its smooth implementation from October 8.
“The process for digitisation of ration cards will be initiated on a pilot basis at 211 centres under Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar block,” said Secretary in the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department Madhusudan Padhi.
Apprehending disturbance of law and order in these centres during the digisation process for which a large number of beneficiaries are expected to gather, the Department has sought assistance of the Commissionerate Police to maintain law and order. The digitisation process will be held from October 8 to 22.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA) will be implemented in the State in a phased manner. The process will be launched in all urban local bodies (ULBs), remaining areas of Khurda district and district headquarters town in the second phase. Rest of the blocks will be covered in the third phase. The entire process will be over by July, 2015, he said.
Meanwhile, the State Government notified the eight exclusion criteria on July 17. Income tax payee, persons having vehicles including two wheelers, business with TIN (tax payer identification number), households with electricity consumption of above 300 units per month, State or Central Government employee, persons having power tillers, fishing boats or other heavy vehicles and professional tax payees cannot apply to get benefit of the scheme. These criteria are set to delete all bogus ration card holders, all APLs and BPLs due to erroneous registration, Padhi said.
Implementation of the NFSA was held up because of the delay in sharing of national population register (NPR) database based on 2011 census by the Registrar General of India (RGI) with the State Government.
The RGI shared the database after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.