This New Year, ‘Manohar Sarkar’ will give yet another ‘Manohar’ gift for Antyodaya as more than 28.93 lakh BPL families in Haryana will get yellow ration cards digitally, thus reiterating the government’s commitment to maximum governance-minimum government. While this digital reform brought by the Chief Minister has not only put an end to the Opposition’s blame-game politics but has also saved the BPL families from the tiring exercise of getting their ration cards made. With this, as per directions of the Chief Minister a fresh survey of BPL families has also been conducted while cancelling surveys conducted by previous governments, so as to ensure that the actual beneficiaries get the benefits.
Along with conducting the new survey, a separate Citizen Information Resource Department has been formed and data of BPL families has been cross verified with the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department. Not only this, the minimum annual income limit for BPL cards was increased from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh, as a result of which the number of BPL beneficiaries increased from 11.50 lakh to 28.93 lakh. Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) data was also matched to further verify the BPL data. Notably, PPP is a unique scheme of Haryana as it has accurate information of every member of the family including income, while the Aadhaar card has information about only one person. Impressed with Haryana’s this unique initiative, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir too have now decided to implement this scheme in their respective states.
In the last eight years, the Manohar Lal-led Government has always remained at the forefront to realize every vision shared by Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi. Be it the SVAMITVA scheme, educated Panchayats, online teacher transfer policy, or PPP, Haryana has always emerged as a role model among other states in the country by successfully implementing all these schemes. Under this new system, any person can apply online on the Saral portal to get these ration cards. Under the public distribution system, eligible families have been divided into two categories, Antyodaya Anna Yojana family and primary family. About 35 kg of ration to Antyodaya families and 5 kg to BPL/OPH families are being distributed at the rate of Rs 2 per kg. Food grains are being distributed free of cost from April 2020 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which was started during the COVID-19 crisis. The scheme has been extended till December 2022. Similarly, under the Antyodaya Aahar Yojana implemented by the government, 2 liters of mustard oil was distributed to BPL/AAY families at the rate of Rs. 20 from January 2018 to May 2021. Besides this, from June 2021, an amount of Rs. 250 per family is being transferred to the accounts of such families.