Inspectors to check rice pilferage under Anna Bhagya

This follows growing complaints of the presence of fake BPL applicants and lakhs of ghost beneficiaries trading subsidised goods at market prices.

In its submission to the government,the food and civil supplies department had claimed staff shortage as a major hindrance to ensuring efficacy of Anna Bhagya.

“With only 400 personnel the department is overwhelmed with multi-disciplinary work,including issuance and verification of ration cards and monitoring of public distribution by 21,024 fair price shops in the state,” Commissioner for Food and Civil Supplies Harsh Gupta said.

Under the new programme,the department had roped in officials holding designations such as bill collectors,revenue inspectors and gram panchayat secretaries as FSLOs,he said.

Similar to a booth-level polling officer,each FSLO has been given a jurisdiction and would be given charge of 400 ration-card applicants.

“Apart from their regular duties,the officials will verify socio-economic credentials of a ration-card applicant and will be accountable for accuracy in reporting,” Gupta said.