Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana: Scheme challenged by depot holders, Punjab seeks to rope them in for doorstep delivery

The plea in the high court sought directions to state government to distribute the ration through depot holders under the National Food Security Act, 2013. It also argued that essential commodities can only be distributed through fair price shops as per the central and state governments’ instructions from time to time.

In the tweaked scheme, the depot holders would be distributing foodgrains to at least 500 beneficiary smart card holders. The new scheme is likely to be taken up by the Cabinet for discussion in Chandigarh on Saturday.

Under the scheme, the beneficiaries of the Atta-Dal Scheme of the state government will get ration at their doorsteps. The scheme will be optional only and beneficiaries who do not want to stand in queues can opt for it.

There are 1.54 crore individual beneficiaries (in 43 lakh families) of the Atta-Dal scheme in Punjab. The government gives 5 kg wheat to every individual beneficiary per month at Rs 2 per kg. While the scheme is named after wheat flour and pulses, the state has not been able to give pulses (ground black grams preferred in Punjab over lentils) due to lack of funds.

The Centre funds the scheme under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 for 1.43 lakh beneficiaries (comprising 36 lakh families). These are Centre’s identified BPL families. Punjab has added its own list of beneficiaries by giving them Blue Cards. These beneficiaries’ annual income is below Rs 30,000 per annum, which is more than the limit set by the Centre for BPL category. Punjab argues that the living standard of Punjabis is better than the rest of the country.

Now, Centre pays for the subsidy bill of 36 lakh families worth Rs 1700 crore every year. It also pays half of the transportation charge. The bill for the remaining 7 lakh families is borne by the state government. The state earlier used to supply wheat flour to the beneficiaries.

However, following complaints of flour turning bad or being found infested, a decision was taken to give wheat instead. Now, wheat is provided by the ration depots in cities and villages once in three months.

There are 26,000 ration depots in the state. They use Electronic Point of Sale (e-POS) machines for biometric verification of every beneficiary. The quarterly delivery takes about a month as about 16 depots use a single EPOS machine that delays the process of delivery. Every depot has about 300 registered beneficiaries. The machine is transported to different depots. This also results in queues.

Also on table, OTS scheme for pending VAT, CST disputes

With more than 50,000 cases of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Central Sales Tax (CST) disputes worth Rs 2,600 crore pending, the Punjab government is likely to bring a one time settlement (OTS) scheme. The scheme is likely to be on the agenda of the Cabinet, meeting in Chandigarh on Saturday.

Sources in the government said that the Excise and Taxation Department is bringing the OTS scheme to resolve the pending cases pertaining to three financial years including 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18.

Finance Minister Harpal Cheema had been saying that there are about 53,000 pending cases of VAT and CST disputes in the state. Sources said that with the OTS, the government plans to recover at least Rs 650 crore.

Former CM capt Amarinder Singh’s government had also brought an OTS scheme to do away with disputes regarding VAT and CST. That time, the pending cases from Amarinder’s predecessor government were cleared. But again the disputes have piled up.