Govt intends to eliminate bogus, ineligible ration cards: Satish Sharma

Govt contemplates to open 1600 new Fair Price Shops

Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Satish  Sharma, today said that the government intends to make all endeavours to eliminate bogus and ineligible ration cards as a continuous process.The Minister was replying to a question raised by Mir Saifullah.He informed the House that the General Administration Department has ordered a verification of beneficiaries to make the PDS database clean and credible. He added that the Government of lndia has advised the States/UTs to undertake proper verification and remove undeserving beneficiaries from the ration cards from time to time

The Minister said that the process of verification has been ordered to include and retain genuine beneficiaries under PDS and weed the undeserving beneficiaries so as to meet the requirements of Targeted Public Distribution System. He said that every AAY household receives 35 Kg of food grains every month while every PHH beneficiary receives 5Kg of food grains every month, free of cost, under the ambitious National Food Security Act (NFSA).The Minister assured the House that the order issued by the GAD for verification of beneficiaries shall be put on hold.

G.A Mir, Sajjad Gani Lone, Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Syed Bashir Veeri and Mehraj Malik raised the supplementaries to the question.Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs,  Satish Sharma, today said that the Department is contemplating opening of 1600 new Fair Price Shops across J&K, as part of Jammu and Kashmir Targeted Public Distribution.The Minister was replying to a question raised by Ajaz Ahmad Jan.The Minister today informed the House that the government intends to rope in the elected members to firm up new Fair Price Shops in J&K. He added that the uncovered underserved panchayat areas shall be prioritized for opening of these new Fair Price Shops.

He apprised that food grains are being provided to different categories in accordance with the entitlement prescribed under NFSA. Additionally, a top up upto 10 Kg is also being provided to an eligible household in PHH category under J&K Government run scheme of PMFSS, he added.The Minister said that there is also a proposal in the Annual Financial Statement of 2025-26 to provide additional free food grains in the context of AAY households only.He said that the Department does not maintain any updation lists of the beneficiaries, however, complete details of the beneficiaries under all the groups are available on RCMS portal, which is in public domain and can be accessed at rcms.jk.gov.in.