Minister puts GAD order on hold
*Many legislators join issue, voice concern
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 24: Several MLAs in the Legislative Assembly today voiced concern over deletion of names from BPL and AAY categories with ruling party legislator from Poonch Aijaz Jan alleging that some officials of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Department were charging Rs 15,000 for inclusion of names in these categories and demanded inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against them.
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The charges prompted FCS&CA Minister Satish Sharma to assure the House that an order issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) for verification of the beneficiaries will be put on hold.
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Charging the FCS&CA staff with taking Rs 15,000 per person for inclusion of names into BPL category, Jan said the officials have minted crores and removed names of several genuine persons from BPL category.
“The Department claims that they have no data. Now, the National Conference is in power and what reply we will give to the people. Names of genuine persons are being removed arbitrarily from the BPL and other categories. The case should be handed over to the Vigilance Organization (ACB) for investigations,” Jan said while asking supplementary in response to his question.
FCS&CA Minister Satish Sharma assured Jan that the issue will be examined and if his charges are found correct strict action will be taken against the officials.
Jan said the Minister should explain the criteria under which genuine beneficiaries have been excluded and even the Government employees have been included in the BPL list.
NC MLA Saifullah Mir, who had also raised almost similar question, wanted to know how the BPL families became rich that their names are being excluded from the list.
People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Ghani Lone said poverty shouldn’t be politicized. “Don’t delete names of people who didn’t vote for you,” he stressed.
Joining the issue, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader GA Mir said the people who have constructed even small pucca houses which bricks have been removed from the BPL list.
Referring to concerns of the members, Satish Sharma announced that the GAD order by which verification of beneficiaries has been ordered will be put on hold.
Sharma, said that the Department is contemplating opening of 1600 new Fair Price Shops across J&K, as part of Jammu and Kashmir Targeted Public Distribution.
He informed the House that the Government intends to rope in the elected members to firm up new Fair Price Shops in J&K. He added that the uncovered underserved Panchayat areas shall be prioritized for opening of these new Fair Price Shops.
The Minister said that there is also a proposal in the Annual Financial Statement of 2025-26 to provide additional free food grains in the context of AAY households only.
He said that the Department does not maintain any updation lists of the beneficiaries, however, complete details of the beneficiaries under all the groups are available on RCMS portal, which is in public domain.
Sharma, said that the Government intends to make all endeavours to eliminate bogus and ineligible ration cards as a continuous process.
He informed the House that the General Administration Department has ordered a verification of beneficiaries to make the PDS database clean and credible. He added that the Government of lndia has advised the States/UTs to undertake proper verification and remove undeserving beneficiaries from the ration cards from time to time.
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