State to ensure migrant labourers receive ration cards by September 20

Kolkata: The Food and Supplies department has instructed its concerned officers at the district level and the district magistrates to ensure all the migrant workers in Bengal get their ration cards within September 20.

The Labour department has already provided the database of such workers and the Food and Supplies department also verified this list with the ration card database of the state.

“Most of the migrant workers in our state have ration cards. However, there are around 1.24 lakh workers who haven’t received the same. The state government wants to ensure all of them have access to free ration that is supplied across the state. Hence, instructions were issued at the district level so the process of providing ration cards is completed by September 15,” said a Food and Supplies department official.

If any listed labourer or his family member cannot be traced despite the best efforts including repeated calls and local enquiry, it may be marked as “Migrant Labour was not traceable” in the module.

It should be ensured that sincere and repeated efforts are made to locate and contact the migrant labourer.

The entire list of such workers should be processed through the module by September 15 and ensure completion by September 20.

Nearly 22 lakh migrant workers have registered themselves in the Karmasathi scheme in a little over nine months since the registration started for the first time on September 1, 2023, during the seventh edition of the Duare Sarkar programme.