Tender floated for smart ration cards: Punjab food and civil supplies minister

The smart public distribution system card with a chip will provide details of ration received by beneficiaries previously

Punjab food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Tuesday said the state government had floated a tender for the creation of smart cards to distribute subsidised ration to families that fall below-poverty-line in the state.

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He was presiding over a meeting of a consultative group constituted by chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh to advise the food and civil supplies department on food security. The meeting was attended by ministers Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Aruna Chowdhry and Sundar Sham Arora, MLAs Pritam Singh Kotbhai, Rajinder Singh, Madan Lal Jalalpur and Kulbir Singh Zira, special invitee Capt Sandeep Sandhu, principal secretary, food and civil supplies, KAP Sinha, principal secretary, social security, Raji P Srivastava and director, food and civil supplies, Anandita Mitra.

Ashu told the consultative group that the department would start the process of distributing tea and sugar soon. “The smart ration card fit with a chip will enable any beneficiary to know detail of the ration he has received in the previous distribution process. Likewise, the card will also enable him to receive ration from any district of the state as all the ration due to him or received by him can be assessed from smart cards,” he said.

The food and civil supplies minister also said the department would soon start the process of disbursing wheat and rice to charitable /welfare societies and hostels on BPL rates, as they had committed in the Congress election manifesto. “People living in orphanages, bal ashrams, nari niketan, old age homes will also be supplied subsidised ration. Only those institutions registered with the state government will be eligible for subsidised ration under this scheme,” he added.

Under National Food Security Act, 2013 the state government will begin distributing subsidised ration to eligible beneficiaries through smart ration cards from January 15, 2020 for the six-month period from October 2019 to March 2020.