PANAJI
Newly inducted Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Sankalp Amonkar on Tuesday said all pending applications under the Goa Ujjwala Yojana will be processed and cleared within the next 15 days.
Speaking after taking charge of the department, Amonkar said the government was addressing issues arising from multiple applications being submitted from the same household.
“There are some issues where multiple applications have been received under the same household. We will have to contact these applicants and ask them to consolidate into a single application per household,” he said.
The minister maintained that the department has already cleared nearly one lakh applications under the scheme.
Amonkar, who was sworn in as a minister last weekend, had formally assumed charge of the Agriculture Department on Monday before taking charge of the Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs portfolio on Tuesday.
He also held a meeting with senior officials from the Civil Supplies Department from across the State to familiarise himself with its functioning and review key pending matters.
The Goa Ujjwala Yojana, launched by the Pramod Sawant-led government, provides financial assistance to households towards cooking fuel expenses. Eligible beneficiaries receive support equivalent to the cost of three domestic LPG cylinder refills annually. The assistance is credited directly to beneficiaries' bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism.
Meanwhile, Civil Supplies Director Jayant Tari clarified that ration cards of beneficiaries who fail to collect their quota of subsidised foodgrains for six consecutive months are not permanently cancelled.
Tari said such cards are only temporarily deactivated under the SMART-PDS framework. Inactive cards are identified on the 21st of every month and are deactivated from the first day of the following month.
Beneficiaries are not permitted to lift subsidised rations while the cards remain inactive.
However, affected households are given a three-month window to complete the mandatory e-KYC process and verification formalities to restore their eligibility.
The clarification comes amid concerns among ration card holders over the status of cards that have remained unused for prolonged periods.
