BHUBANESWAR: In a significant move, the State Government has decided to drop certain ‘privileged’ families __ in above poverty line (APL) category __ from its flagship Rs 2-a-kg-rice scheme in the KBK region. Effecting a modification to its last year order, the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department has identified four categories of APL families who will not be eligible for the subsidised rice anymore. Income Tax (IT) payers, Government employees, four-wheeler owners and pension-holders will be excluded. The collectors of Koraput, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Balangir and Sonepur have been asked to prepare lists and send them to blocks and urban local bodies (ULBs) to ascertain if the affluent APL families are availing of the benefits. Each of the beneficiaries will be issued a letter asking him/her to disclose voluntarily if s/he is taking advantage of the entitlements under the public distribution system. The Department has also prepared a voluntary disclosure form for the beneficiaries to open up about availing of the benefits under the scheme. Once the disclosure is made, the Department will be able to assess the figure of the ‘creamy- layer’ and the data will help the Government in discontinuing the benefits to them. The Department has set three months to implement the decision of the Government through assessment, communication and disclosure, a letter issued to the collectors by Secretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare, Madhu Sudan Padhi said. To figure out the affluent APL families, the collectors have been asked to seek information on IT assessees from the IT Officers concerned. The Department has already sent a request to the Commissioner of IT, Odisha, in this regard. Similarly, the list of Government employees __ working with district administrations and PSUs __ will also be drawn up. Details of the employees and their addresses will be collected by the collectors. Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) will provide information about four-wheeler owners while banks and district treasuries would supply the details about pension-holders. All the information, the letter said, will be digitised and collated before being sent to various blocks and ULBs so as to ascertain the ‘creamy-layer’ beneficiaries and subsequently de-list them from the rice scheme. Interestingly, the decision comes even as there is growing pressure on the Government to stop the rice scheme since it is a burden on the State Exchequer. The State spends close to Rs 958 crore per annum on the scheme which many experts think is unproductive.
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