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The state civil supplies department has rolled back an order issued in April, which required ineligible beneficiaries in Ghaziabad to surrender their ration cards and directed officials to recover the amount for the ration supplied to them, stating that there is no provision of recovering the amount from ineligible card holders.

The direction to roll back the order was issued by Saurabh Babu, commissioner of the department of food and civil supplies, Uttar Pradesh, last week, citing a state government order dated October 7, 2014. The order further said there is no provision of recovery proceedings against the ineligible card holders mentioned in any previous order and also under the National Food Security Act, 2013.

Following the new directions, many ration card holders who had come to surrender their cards at the district supplies office returned on Wednesday.

“I came to surrender the ration card for fear of recovery proceedings. The staff here told that there will be no recovery. So, I have not surrendered the card as of now,” said Sachin Kumar, a resident of Nandgram.

Kamal Chaudhary, a resident of Dasna, said, “It is mostly out of fear of recovery proceedings that people flocked to surrender their ration cards.”

Earlier in April, the district supplies office in Ghaziabad warned ineligible ration card holders of legal action if they did not surrender their ration cards and issued directions to officials to initiate recovery proceedings for the wheat and rice supplied to them.

The instructions were issued by district supplies officer Seema Chaudhary. The signed letter, which the district information office shared with the press, stated the ‘recovery process’ included imposing penalties at a rate of ₹ 24 for a kilogram of wheat and ₹ 32 for a kg of rice since the time ineligible households started availing ration.

In fact, the deadline to submit the ration cards was initially set at April 30 and later extended to May 20. Ineligible ration card holders were warned that if they missed the May 20 deadline, the district supplies department will send them recovery notices and even lodge FIRs under provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Chaudhary did not respond to calls seeking her response over the roll back of the April order on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, the district supplies officer of Ghaziabad issued a fresh official letter, revoking the previous order issued on April 11 and stating there will be no recovery proceeding against ineligible beneficiaries. The letter was shared by the district information office.

“The letter dated April 11, 2022 (issued by district supplies officer, Ghaziabad) has been withdrawn... The ration cards of ineligible card holders will be cancelled after inquiries. This is a routine process. There will be no recovery from the card holders, whose ration cards get cancelled. There will be no recovery proceedings against those, who surrender their card voluntarily,” said divisional commissioner Surendra Singh in response to a query by HT.

According to officials aware of the matter, the order has been rolled back as the directions for surrender of ration cards and recovery proceedings have not gone down well with the political hierarchy in the state ahead of the 2024 general elections.

In one of the first decisions taken after assuming office for a second term, chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced in March this year that his government will continue providing free ration to 1.5 million poor people across the state for the next three months.

After the resounding victory of BJP in UP assembly polls in March, many political pundits said free ration provided during the pandemic was a game changer and it helped the party win a second term. During the Covid-19 pandemic, card holders were provided with free rations twice a month — once from the Centre, and once from the Uttar Pradesh government.

According to records available with the district administration, at least 326,961 ration cards have been issued in the district, benefitting over 1.3 million beneficiaries.

According to the directions issued by the state food and civil supplies department, only the exclusions listed in the government order dated October 7, 2014 stand valid. This means households/family members paying income-tax; annual income of all members above ₹ 3 lakh; family members having more than one arm/arms’ licence and families or individuals having a plot of more than 100 square metres of plot or house or having a flat of more than 100 square metres (carpet area) will not be eligible for ration.

Families, where any of the members owns a four-wheeler or an air-conditioner or have a DG set of 5kva or more, or families or members having 80 square metres (of carpet area) or more in form of a commercial area will also not be eligible for ration.

Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh – from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade. ...view detail

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