Wednesday, 18 OCTOBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Food and Civil Supplies minister Rekha Arya has appealed to locals to complain about ineligible beneficiaries who are availing the benefits of ration cards. The locals can call the department’s toll-free number 1967 and the complainant’s name will be kept confidential. Arya said this during the inauguration of the food grain ATM in Haridwar’s Rawali Mahdood area on Tuesday. She said that the main objective of the Food Grain ATM scheme is to provide food grains to people across the State through ATMs. The beneficiaries can easily get ration through these ATMs without any hassle of standing in long queues outside ration shops. The department is planning to install such ATMs in other districts as well to make it easy for beneficiaries to get ration conveniently every month, said Arya. She said that these machines work like money-withdrawing ATMs and have similar screens. This machine is connected to drums which are filled with wheat, pulses and rice. However, she clarified that this facility will be available only to those ration card holders who have new smart ration cards and those with old ration cards will have to get their ration from respective ration shops till they get the new one. Besides this, the beneficiaries of One Nation One Card can also get wheat and rice from such ATMs. She also urged the people to complain about those who are getting benefits from ration cards but are not eligible to become beneficiaries by calling toll free number 1967. The department will cancel the ration cards of such people and take necessary action against them. She also said that the State government is also making efforts to provide free salt and sugar to the poor under the central government’s National Food Security Act (NFSA).
