BHUBANESWAR: Upping the ante against the State government over fake ration cards in circulation, the BJP on Thursday requested Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal for an inquiry into the alleged anomalies in distribution of free ration to NFSA beneficiaries in Odisha during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A delegation of six BJP MPs from the State including Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw met Goyal and submitted a memorandum alleging huge discrepancies between allocation and distribution of food grains under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
Under PMGKAY, about 12.94 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of food grains for the period April-November, 2020 was allocated free of cost to more than 92.77 lakh NFSA card holders covering 3.24 crore beneficiaries in Odisha of which 12.5 LMT was lifted. In addition to food grains, about 27,853.89 MT pulses had also been allocated for the period April-November, 2020.
In 2021, about 11.35 LMT food grains were allocated free of cost to Odisha for the period May-November of which 6.22 LMT has been lifted.
“It is concerning to note that lifting of food grains under PMGKAY and NFSA schemes is below 10 per cent in 15 districts, most of which are backward and tribal-dominated. This was indicated by the Managing Director of Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation in his July 14 letter to all district managers-cum-civil supplies officers,” the memorandum said.
Pointing out the discrepancies between the allocation and distribution of food grains under PMGKAY and NFSA during May and June this year, the BJP MPs said that the presence of around 5 lakh ghost beneficiaries in the list of NFSA ration card holders cannot be ruled out.
They cited media reports on PDS food grains being smuggled to the open market at the cost of the poor and the needy who are left starving. Besides, in blatant violation of the Central guideline for giving wide publicity to the distribution of free ration during the pandemic, the State government resorted to misbranding the scheme by promoting the image Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to give the impression that the free food distribution is being done by the BJD government, they further alleged.