‘Cross checking imperative to avoid public hue and cry’
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 30: Pointing out several lapses in the database generated for implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA) in Jammu and Kashmir, former Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and MLA Darhal, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali has sought personal intervention of Governor N N Vohra and Chief Secretary, B R Sharma for necessary rectification before issuance of ration cards in order to ensure smooth execution of pro-people legislation on ground.
While deeply analyzing the report generated by the system on January 29, 2016, Ch Zulfkar Ali, who was Minister for CAPD and Tribal Affairs in the previous PDP-BJP Coalition Government, has noticed several lapses, which, if not rectified well in time, would invite public hue and cry in the State and may prove counterproductive.
He has come to know that APL category continued to be in the database while as this category needs to be abolished and beneficiaries under this category need to be categorized under the relevant field. In certain cases, the numbers of souls have gone beyond the census 2011 population of the districts. Moreover, the number of souls under Annapurna doesn’t correspond to the actual number of ration ticket count. In respect of existing BPL and AAY figures, it has been observed that the number of such families has been enhanced.
Now, in the larger interest of the State, the former CAPD Minister has written to the Governor, N N Vohra seeking his personal intervention in making the necessary rectifications in the data.
“The process has been carried out in hasty manner and there are numerous errors in the database collected which need to be rectified before issuing ration cards to the people of this State”, Ch Zulfkar Ali said in a communication to the Governor while expressing gratitude to him for decision of going ahead to implement the National Food Security Act.
Stating that there are mistakes on large scale in the database, he said, “instead entry of name of husband, father’s name has been added in many entries. A person with one faith is having parentage of another faith. One member of a family has been entered 25 times in the database”.
“Likewise, there are numerous examples of mistakes in the database and I am sure that wrong entries made in the database will invite public hue and cry in the State and may prove counterproductive if it is not cross checked and rectified well in time”, reads the communication, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
He has further brought to the notice of Governor that in many areas the punching of data entries is under process and in the areas like Zanskar, Nubra, Gurez, Machil, Padder, Dachan, Marwah and Warwan, which are cut off due to snowfall, even the forms have not been distributed or collected back. “Moreover, a large section of society even in the capital cities has not received these forms. Most astonishingly, the report generated by the system shows the population of the State as 1.31 crore against actual 1.25 crore as per the Census of 2011”, he added.
Pointing towards the schedule prepared by the top brass of the CAPD Department mentioning that ration cards will be issued in 18 districts till February 5 and in remaining four districts till February 10, Ch Zulfkar said, “I have failed to understand how it can be possible to issue 22.67 lakh ration cards in 10 days only even when there are areas where the process has not even started and fidelity of the data has not been checked”, adding “always the ration is distributed on the monthly basis from first of that particular month and not from the middle of any month”.
“Issuance of ration card before cross checking of data will add bogus rationees in the list and genuine ones will be deprived of ration”, he further said, adding “a proper procedure need to be adopted before going ahead and it will be in the interest of the consumers if final draft list of rationees is put for public objections through media, fair price shops and displaying at public places in the State”.
He has also brought to the notice of Governor that he has already suggested the Chief Secretary about putting draft list of rationees for public objections. “There is a need for making error free records for effective implementation of National Food Security Act”, reads the communication of former CAPD Minister to the Chief Secretary.
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