Issued before elections,new blue cards still await atta and dal
Neither wheat,nor pulses; the new blue cards issued under Punjabs atta-dal scheme before the polls have more hues of ruling politicians...
Neither wheat,nor pulses; the new blue cards issued under Punjab’s atta-dal scheme before the polls have more hues of ruling politicians — photograph of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon next to that of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Months after polls,the beneficiaries are awaiting both atta and dal on the new cards.
Sheikha,Kamboja and Bhattian bastis in Ferozepur City had reported a clamour for being included in the new list of beneficiaries after a fresh survey was ordered for ‘choosing’ Punjab’s poor before the elections this year.
Among the few fortunate ones to make it to the list were brothers Surjit Singh and Darshan Singh,residents of Makhu Gate area of the city. But they are yet to get any atta-dal on their new cards.
Hukum Kaur’s family of 16 living at Nayi Abadi area of Fazilka has both the cards,but rations are being provided only on the old one. “When we go to the depot and ask for atta-dal,we are told supplies have not come on the new cards,” says Mukhtiar Singh,son of blue cardholder Resham Singh,living in Anandpur mohalla of the city.
District Food Controller Sukhdev Singh says they brought the problem to the notice of the department at a meeting held last month. “The new cardholders have to be given ration within six months. First parliamentary elections and later Assembly bypolls caused the delay. Besides,some beneficiaries have not completed procedural formalities such as providing photographs,” he adds.
While the newly-eligible cardholders await supplies,many with old cards in Ferozepur City and Ferozepur Cantonment areas too complain of not getting pulses since August. Nearly 200 depot holders have not received any supply since last month,they claim.
What atta-dal beneficiaries like Dilip Singh and Sukhdev Singh are instead getting on priority basis is kerosene from the public distribution system (PDS). The recent arrest of a retired Punsup inspector,Baldev Singh,in-charge of Ferozepur City,from whom huge quantities of moong dal were seized this month,may help trace the route Punjab’s own food subsidy is taking.
The scheme is not just mired in controversies over supplies. Two years after the atta-dal scheme was rolled out in August 2007,complaints are still pouring in against those asked by the state to do the survey. Visit Punjab villagers from Ferozepur to Ropar and they point out how the survey excluded many ‘deserving’ families,but included many who did not need the benefits.
Money too played a role,allege villagers. “They asked us for money in lieu of putting us on the beneficiaries’ list and many of us paid Rs 150 each,” says Rajo Bai of Maujam village and seconded by many others in the village.
Others point to political affiliations of the beneficiaries. “The pradhan of of our ward,Madan Lal, belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has two blue cards and most with blue cards in this ward are from the ruling alliance,” says Jagdish Kumar,who lives in Ward Number 3 of Fazilka.
Food and supply department officials,not wishing to be named,admit to the lapses. “The survey was done by patwaris,schoolteachers and government employees and not by the department. We were given the list of beneficiaries by deputy commissioners or sub-divisional magistrates. We,in fact,don’t even know the criteria followed for identifying the beneficiaries,” says an official in Ropar.
They say the answer to who are Punjab’s poor is still lost in sheer logistics and numbers. Official records say there are 1.7 lakh Antodaya families and 2.8 lakh below poverty line families. The other poor — 14.51 lakh beneficiaries of the atta-dal scheme — include government employees,commission agents and landed farmers as those eligible for food subsidy from the cash-strapped state.
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