BHUBANESWAR: The CAG has pulled up the State Government over its failure to completely weed out ghost ration cards as claimed by it due to which there has been short supply of PDS items to the genuine beneficiaries.
Despite the State Government’s claim that all bogus ration cards have been withdrawn, the CAG found a large number of such cards in circulation in Puri and Cuttack districts alone. The CAG maintained in its latest report that 88,488 more cards were found in Cuttack and Puri districts which were unverified.
The State Government launched a verification drive between November, 2010 and December, 2011 to weed out bogus cards. In Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Puri and Sundargarh districts, the civil supplies officers (CSOs) validated 9,66,863 APL cards and cancelled 51,041 ghost cards.
But despite the exercise, 88,488 ghost cards were found in circulation in Cuttack and Puri districts. As allotment of PDS wheat was made based on the validated card strength, inclusion of these card holders in the beneficiary list resulted in distribution of less quantity of wheat ranging from three to six kg per month to each card holder as against 10 kg.
Besides, the CAG report alleged that there was no annual verification of ration cards between 2011 and 2014 as required under PDS (Control) Order, 2001. About 1.13 lakh cards related to Cuttack Municipal Corporation were found to be unverified during the period.
The CAG observed that due to issuance of PDS wheat to these unauthorised APL card holders, 3.21 lakh quintals of wheat involving Government subsidy of `37.35 crore was diverted to non-entitled beneficiaries.
During physical inspection of six fair price shops (FPSs) in Puri district conducted by department officials in the presence of CAG, it was found that wheat provided for 1,294 card holders was distributed to 1,724 card holders.
The department stated in May, 2015 that Government had instructed all the district authorities to weed out bogus ration cards in circulation and a massive drive was conducted. However, the Government admitted that annual verification to identify bogus cards was not conducted after December, 2010.