Malda: The Malda district administration has so far cancelled almost 10 lakh ration cards in the last six years. Around 13,000 alone were cancelled in the current year till November.
However, some MR dealers of the district have also accused the unavailability of link for attaching ration with Aadhaar card for the number of cancellation turning out to be so high.
The total ration subscribers in Malda are 42 lakh 29 thousand. There are Annapurna, Antyodaya, Food Protection schemes 1 & 2, household priority cards, including general consumers. Currently, the Duare Ration scheme is going on across the district.
Sometimes allegations regarding the quality of items distributed through the PDS, less amount distribution and fake cards are raised in different places. In an attempt to deal with all these issues and allegations, the concerned department has started an initiative.
Manik Sarkar, district Controller of Food and Food Supply department, said: “The administration aims to restore transparency in the PDS system. For that, priority has been given to identifying and cancelling fake ration cards. As many as 12,916 fake cards were cancelled in the district till the first week of November this year. The number of fake ration cards cancelled from 2017 to 2023 is 9 lakh 82 thousand. In this case, the problem lies elsewhere. Now it is mandatory to link Aadhaar with ration cards but many people are not linking the two for various reasons. Dealers often point out the lack of links. However, that can also be done by biometrics or OTP on the phone.”
Pramod Ghosh, president of West Bengal MR Dealer Association, stated: “Many times consumers are not given ration due to lack of link. Once the link is lost in remote areas, it takes ages to be restored. This means that some consumers are forced to return home without getting ration.
Now the cards not being used to receive ration materials for a long period of time will automatically be cancelled. This is how the number of cancelled cards is increasing all the time. But the allegations of theft of goods against dealers are not correct because ration is distributed using biometrics.”