Govt to weed out ineligible food security beneficiaries to accommodate 2.5 mn new ones

Maharashtra has 18.4 million families below the poverty line (BPL), of which 16.58 million families get the benefit of subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA)

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has started screening the 71.6 million beneficiaries who get subsidised foodgrains through the public distribution system with the aim of removing those whose income has improved in the past six years. The government expects at least 2.5 million beneficiaries to be deleted and will add that many new beneficiaries to the list.

Thane, India march 22, 2014: More than 11 lakh people have benefited from the food security bill of the government, India, Mar, 22, 2014 (Photo By Praful Gangurde) (Hindustan Times)

Maharashtra has 18.4 million families below the poverty line (BPL), of which 16.58 million families get the benefit of subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). These families, comprising 71.6 million beneficiaries, are given rice at a subsidised price of ₹3 per kg, wheat at ₹2 and coarse grains at Re 1. An approximate 26.54% of the total BPL families do not get the benefit of the scheme. While the total number of beneficiaries is fixed by the central government, the state government has fixed an income criterion— ₹59,000 per annum for urban areas and ₹44,000 for rural areas—for these.

Since the number of beneficiaries has been fixed by the Centre, the state government has not been able to add many eligible BPL beneficiaries (those with an annual income of less than ₹1 lakh) till existing beneficiaries who are no longer eligible are weeded out. For this, the state government has undertaken a special two-month verification drive.

“Since 2013, when NFSA was rolled out, we have been undertaking regular drives to remove ineligible beneficiaries,” said an official from the food and civil supplies department. “Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, and 2024 being an election year, no drives took place. Now, after six years, many families would have an improved income, and we expect at least 2.5 million beneficiaries to be ousted. This will enable us to include many new ones.”

Another officer said that the drive would be implemented with the help of village-level revenue and rationing department manpower until May 31. “It has been made mandatory for current beneficiaries to submit their latest income certificates,” he said. “If the number of those excluded is more than the ones to be included, the government may even consider the revision of the upper cap of annual income.”

The central government supplies 3.83 lakh metric tonnes of free foodgrains under NFSA, although post-supply expenditure like transportation, handling and dealers’ commission is borne by the state government. Maharashtra has 26.5 million ration cards, of which 2.2 million are white, 5.9 million yellow and 18.4 million saffron. A total of 26.54% of the saffron cards are still out of the food security coverage.

Gorakh Avhad, state coordinator of the Rationing Kruti Samiti was sceptical about the drive. “The NFSA says that 76.75% of the population should be part of the scheme, but in fact less than 55% is covered under it by keeping the annual income limit low,” he said. “The annual income limit in other states ranges between ₹1.5 and ₹3 lakh against Maharashtra’s unrealistic income limit. We suspect that the government does not want to add any new beneficiaries, only delete current ones to save the ₹1,250 crore it spends on the distribution and supply of foodgrains.”