Surrender ration cards by March 15 or face legal action: Assam Government

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The State Government has asked all ration cardholding government employees and pensioners to surrender their ration cards by March 15, 2022. If they do not do so, the government will initiate legal action against them, the government said.

According to rules, government employees and pensioners cannot hold ration cards. However, along with a section of government employees and pensioners, thousands of ineligible families have ration cards in the state. They are availing of the benefits of various government schemes to which they are not entitled.

Assam has around 58.91 lakh families holding ration cards involving 2.5 crore beneficiaries. The Food and Civil Supplies Department cancelled or deleted around 2.7 lakh ration cards of ineligible families in the past three years.

Today the Kamrup District Administration issued an order asking the government employees and pensioners to surrender their ration cards before March 15, 2022, if they have not surrendered yet.

The order further said that if they did not surrender their ration cards within the deadline, the district administration would initiate legal action against them under the relevant laws. The district administration further said that it would recoup from the salaries of the employees and pensioners concerned the value of the items they had taken unduly.

Further, the Deputy Commissioner also urged the financially sound families of the district to surrender their ration cards for the benefit of the marginalized families.

According to sources, several deputy commissioners will issue similar orders to employees and pensioners in their respective districts.

After the Aadhaar link with ration cards under the one-nation one-ration card policy, the deletion of bogus and undue ration cards was around one lakh. After completion of the Aadhaar-linking process, around three-four lakh ration cards will get deleted in the state, sources said.

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