State govt sets deadline of 45 days to ready ration cards

Kolkata: The state Food and Supplies department will take another 45 days for completing the rectification of errors in ration cards, preparation of new digital ration cards and sending it to respective beneficiaries.

"The enquiry process of rectifying errors in ration cards is over and we have already received applications for new digital ration cards that people would like to use for their identity without availing facilities of food grains. All the cards have now been sent to the printing press. The cards will be checked again by our officials after they come from printing and then they will be dispatched. Hopefully it will take another 45 days for the department to send ration cards to the beneficiaries," said Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick.

The department will not hand over cards through councillors but will sent them through post this time

"There have been cases when cards were misplaced in the manual process. The department wants to ensure that the cards reach directly at the doorstep of the beneficiaries," a senior official of the department said.

The department has also informed the Centre that the process of linking aadhar with ration cards will continue in the state in January 2020. The Centre had asked the state to complete the aadhar link by December 31. The department expects that the process of completion of the linkage will be over by January 15. Till date more than 6 crores people have had their aadhar cards linked with ration cards. As per estimates of the department the total number of people in the state under Food Security Act is 9.17 crore.

The BJP-ruled states such as Assam and JDU-ruled Bihar is lagging behind West Bengal when it comes to aadhar linkage with ration cards. The union Food department may also extend the deadline for the process. "Winter sets in Bengal in December and people are in festive mood. So the linkage process did not go at its desired pace this month. Moreover, the process is carried out through internet and often there are problems in servers," a senior official of state Food and Supplies department said.