PANAJI
Approximately 18,000 households have been struck off the public distribution roster with their ration cards either surrendered voluntarily or most cancelled due to non-use for six consecutive months, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department officials have confirmed.
Officials said, there are 2,64,623 ration cards registered and valid this year as against 2,83,334 in 2024.
A fraction of the 18,000-odd ration cards which have been struck off was accounted for by households which voluntarily surrendered their cards. A vast majority of these were cancelled because the beneficiaries did not use the cards to procure their monthly quota from the allocated fair price shops for successive six months, the officials said.
After this Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Household Card (PHH) being allocated, according to the Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department.
The development has also proportionately reduced the total number of beneficiaries under the PDS system. As of date, the State has 1.14 lakh beneficiaries under the ‘Priority Household Card’ scheme, another 10,000 under the Antyodaya Yojana and 1.39 lakh under the Above Poverty Line (APL) category.
The State bears the cost of subsidising rations to the APL category while the Centre takes the tab for the other two categories – AAY/PHH ration card holders.
Over the last six months between October last year and March this year around 1,200 metric tonnes of rice came from the Centre’s FCI for the PDS system in the State – 380 in October, 365 in November, 370 in December, 370 in January this year, 377 in February and 344 in March.
