State govt takes action against 4.5k ineligible AAY card holders

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has seized and cancelled the ration cards and slapped fines on as many as 4,572 citizens who are ineligible, yet have been maintaining Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) category ration cards in the state. The food and civil supplies department also slapped Rs 76,98,217 as fine on those who were found holding such cards.
The government had launched Operation Yellow in July this year so as to track all those who are holding the AAY ration cards, despite being ineligible to do so. The maximum number of such ineligible holders of priority were found in Thrissur (664), Kozhikode (592), Thiruvananthapuram (576) and Ernakulam (548).
The government had urged the citizens to voluntarily surrender their ration cards if they are ineligible, in June last year, on the basis of which as many as 1,72,312 persons had surrendered their cards. These include 14,701 AAY card holders, 90,798 priority household (PHH) card holders and 66,813 non-priority subsidy (NPS) card holders.
The government subsequently had launched Operation Yellow asking the supply officers to seize all those who are still holding on to their priority ration cards, despite being ineligible to do so.
The state had implemented the National Food Securities Act, 2013, on November 1, 2016. As per the Act, the state has 14,123 fair-price shops (authorized ration dealers- ARD) with 92,93,675 card holders. The total number of beneficiaries under the system is 35,68,5256. There are as many as 5,89,740 AAY card holders, 35,09,237 priority household (PHH) card holders, 23,29,203 non-priority subsidy card holders in the state at present. As many as 1,54,80,040 beneficiaries can be added further in the AAY and PHH categories. But since the actual eligible number of AAY and PHH who are waiting to be included in these categories are much more, the state had been requesting the Centre to revise the quota allotted to the state.
The chief minister and food and civil supplies minister G R Anil had met Piyush Goyal, who is also in-charge of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, to revise the norms and conditions to enhance the number of beneficiaries under the AAY and priority household category.
There are also 28,37,964 non-priority non-subsidy (NPNS) card holders and 27,531 non-priority institutions (NPI) like the orphanages in the state. The AAY card holders are eligible for 30kg rice and 4kg wheat free of cost, and one packet of atta and 1kg sugar at Rs 6 and Rs 21, respectively, every month. The PHH card holders are eligible for 4kg rice and 1kg wheat at the rate of Rs 2 per kg. In addition, each of the members of the AAY as well as PHH card will be eligible for 5kg rice free, under the PMGKAY project.