Hundreds of ration cardholders in Maharashtra get recovery notices

Tehsildars in Indapur, Daund and other parts of Pune district have issued such notices, HT has learnt

Mumbai: When Ramdas Chavan (name changed on request), a farm labourer from Mhasobachi Wadi in Pune’s Indapur taluka, got 10 farmers together to pool resources and buy a tractor under a government scheme for group farming last year, he would not have imagined that it would one day cost him his ration.

The Centre had sent Maharashtra’s food and civil supplies department a list of beneficiaries identified as ineligible under its Mission Sudhar initiative last year. (Pic for representation/HT PHOTO)

Since he had taken the initiative for the scheme, the tractor was registered in his name. This eventually led to his name being deleted from the list of beneficiaries entitled to subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS). And now, he has also received a notice seeking the recovery of the cost of foodgrains he collected from ration shops over the past year.

“My name was flagged by the central government because the vehicle is registered in my name, and I was deleted from the list of beneficiaries. Now, I have been served a notice seeking recovery of the cost of foodgrains I took over the last year, calculated at market rates. My income has not crossed the prescribed limit, as I still work as a farm labourer,” he said.

The Centre had sent Maharashtra’s food and civil supplies department a list of beneficiaries identified as ineligible under its Mission Sudhar initiative last year. Their names were flagged based on records compiled from various government departments, including income tax, transport, and land records. Maharashtra accounts for more than 7.5 million of the 17.7 million ration cardholders flagged by the Centre.

The exercise has also affected joint families. Tukaram Khandare (name changed), a farm labourer from Baramati, said his entire family’s ration benefits were discontinued because his nephew, who works in the private sector in Mumbai, was flagged in the income tax department’s database.

“We have now been advised to split the ration card, but the process will take some time. Until then, we are unable to collect our foodgrains,” he said.

Activists working in the field said there were several such cases in which farmers and farm labourers filed income tax returns to avail themselves of agricultural loans, but were subsequently excluded from the list of beneficiaries after being identified as income-tax payers.

According to food and civil supplies department officials, the annual household income ceiling for receiving foodgrains under the PDS is ₹44,000 in rural areas and ₹59,000 in urban areas. After finding that some beneficiaries declared ineligible were continuing to collect foodgrains from ration shops, the department began issuing notices seeking recovery of the cost of the foodgrains at market rates. Tehsildars in Indapur, Daund and other parts of Pune district have issued such notices, HT has learnt.

The recovery notices have drawn criticism from activists. Tushar Zende Patil, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, said that even eligible beneficiaries had been served notices.

“The deletion of beneficiaries has been carried out indiscriminately based on data received from the central government, without verifying the facts. The income limits prescribed by the government are unreasonable and are based on parameters decided three decades ago. The recovery also goes against a high court ruling, which says that benefits extended as grants cannot be recovered. Foodgrains distributed through the Public Distribution System cannot be recovered in this manner,” he said.

Mahesh Dhawale, chairman of the Maharashtra State Food Commission, has written to the state government urging it not to recover money from the beneficiaries. “The list of beneficiaries has been prepared on the basis of parameters finalised in 1997, while the income ceiling was revised in 2013. While the income of many families may have increased, that does not necessarily mean that all of them have crossed the prescribed income limit. In several joint families, the entire household has been excluded from the list merely because one member’s income increased. We have directed the government to consider splitting the ration cards of such families and stop recovery from beneficiaries with retrospective effect,” he said.

Indapur tehsildar Jeevan Bansode, who issued the notices, said that an inquiry was being conducted before initiating recovery proceedings. “It is not just our taluka; similar notices are being issued in other tehsils as well,” he said.

Lahu Jadhav, supply inspector of Indapur taluka, said the notices were initially issued due to a lack of clarity from the government. “In the absence of clear instructions from the government, we had issued notices to people whose names had been deleted from the list of beneficiaries. However, following the complaints we received, the guidelines have been revised, and we have decided not to recover money from the beneficiaries,” he said.

Jadhav said the deletion of beneficiaries was carried out based on the list received from the Centre. Of the over 290,000 ration cards in the taluka, 18,554 were deleted after the beneficiaries’ annual household incomes were found to exceed ₹6 lakh.