Centre hasn’t removed any NFSA beneficiary in Punjab: Union Minister after Mann says told to remove 8 lakh names

“Bhagwant Mann ji needs to get the facts right. Firstly, the mandatory eKYC of beneficiaries was directed by the Supreme Court. Centre is merely asking the states to implement the same. Multiple extensions (three extensions) have been given to Punjab government to do the same,” Joshi said in a post on X.

“Secondly, Punjab has 1.41 crore beneficiaries under the NFSA-2013. And, as per the NFSA-2013, it is the responsibility of the State government to identify eligible beneficiaries based on their own exclusion and inclusion criteria. Central government has no role in this,” Joshi said.

The Food Minister further said said, “Thirdly, central government has not reduced even a single beneficiary from the approved 1.41 crore beneficiaries. It has merely asked to do a recheck on the beneficiaries based on the inclusion criteria (data points collected from multiple sources like CBDT, MCA etc have been shared) set by the Punjab government. This way, deserving beneficiaries who were not part of this scheme (if any) may be added”.

“I repeat, 1.41 crore beneficiaries from Punjab will get free food grains. There will not be a single reduction in that number. Instead of pointing fingers, Punjab government needs to support the central government’s pursuit in ensuring no poor is left behind,” Joshi added.

Mann, earlier in the day said that Punjab government recently received a report from the Centre in which it said that “the names of 8,02,493 ration card holders should be deleted as they no longer fulfill the criteria under the NFSA”.

“If we consider four members per family, then it will impact at least 32 lakh persons in the state,” said Mann. Asserting that his government will not let this happen, he said, “Till the time Bhagwant Mann is the chief minister, not even a single card will be allowed to be deleted”.

Attacking the BJP government, Mann said, “On one hand they are saying that they want to make the country a ‘Vishwa Guru’. On the other hand, they are doing this. They are not only ‘vote-chor’ but also ‘ration-chor’”.

Mann said, “We have 1.53 crore beneficiaries who get wheat. But they (BJP) say that many of them are fake beneficiaries. We have verified 1.29 crore beneficiaries. I have written to the Centre to give us six months to find out who is right or wrong (verification of beneficiaries). We will talk to procurement agencies like Punsup (Punjab Civil Supplies Corporation) to keep up the supply even if the Centre directs them to delete the names,” Mann told reporters.

“Who are they (Centre) to check (the beneficiaries) sitting there? They have taken data from AI. The state Department of Food will check this,” he said.

Questioning the criteria for cancelling the names, Mann said the Centre has said that beneficiaries who have a four-wheeler or have more than 2.50 acres of land will be excluded. “I want to ask what about a family of two brothers who have their ration card under the name of one brother who is in government service but the other does not have any source of income? Should his family go without food?” Mann asked.

Under the NFSA, each beneficiary is entitled to 5 kg of wheat per month at Rs 2 a kg.

Stating that Punjab produced foodgrains that satiate the hunger of the entire country, he said Centre “want to snatch morsels from the mouths of Punjabis”.

He demanded a different criterion for Punjab for selecting beneficiaries under central scheme. He said not a single Punjabi will fit into the criterion for benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. “They say if you have a scooter, a power meter, a pucca house, a gas cylinder, then you cannot be a beneficiary. On the other hand, they give cylinders to every household under the Ujjwala scheme. I have said this so many times that Punjab cannot be dealt with the same criteria. Punjab is different. The other states may fit into this criteria.”

On August 20, The Indian Express had reported that the Centre has for the first time prepared a list of ration card holders who receive free food grains, but are either taxpayers, car owners or directors in companies, and hence probably ineligible for the benefits under the NFSA.

Having arrived at such a list, the Union government’s Department of Food and Public Distribution has now directed states to undertake necessary field verification and remove the ineligible ration card holders by September 30.

In the cross-verification of data, 5.31 lakh Director Identification Number (DIN) holders, 94.71 lakh income taxpayers, and 17.51 lakh four-wheeler owners were found having ration cards in their names, the official said, adding that the states have been asked to conduct field verification of these beneficiaries.

Storage space

On the government staring at a possible paddy procurement crisis due to an alleged shortage of space, Mann said that there would not be any shortage as 10 lakh metric tonnes of grain were being shifted out every month. “We are ready for paddy,” he asserted.

‘BJP leaders not allowed to collect personal data’

On police action against BJP leaders for organising facilitation camps for enrolling beneficiaries under central schemes, Mann said, “How can you take anyone’s personal data? If they are organising camps, they should tell people that they are deleting 8 lakh ration cards. We have to give Rs 1,000 to women. We have to prepare a database for this. We do not ask for their personal data.”

“They (BJP workers) even ask people who do they vote for. This is breach of privacy. They rob votes. In Haryana, two EVMs were counted again and the person who lost the sarpanch election became the winner. They have deleted votes even in (Union Minister) Nitin Gadkari’s constituency. They do not spare even their own,” the CM alleged.

“What are they doing? What has happened in Bihar? They say they do not consider Aadhaar to be an ID proof. Otherwise, for everything else you need an Aadhaar card,” he added.

On allegations of “vote chori”, Mann said, “They must have been doing this earlier too. Now, they have been caught.”

On the flood situation in Punjab, with water in Pong dam reservoir flowing above the danger mark, he said, “Water had to be released. We ordered special girdawari. We will give compensation for cattle heads. We will have to find a permanent solution. We will have to channelise rivers,” he said.

“Punjab’s rain does not affect much. We get it from Himachal. Why is Haryana not taking the water now? Why is Rajasthan not taking water now? One cannot control the rivers. We will help these people who are affected by floods. There is no loss of life,” the chief minister added.