Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Satish Sharma, today said that the addition of eligible left out family members in ration cards is being done on regular basis in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Minister was replying to a question raised by Balwant Singh Mankotia.

The Minister said that, as many as, 98.52 lakh AAY, PHH and NPHH beneficiaries have been covered under the PM Ration Yojana in Jammu and Kashmir while 56,977 beneficiaries in Chenani Constituency. He said that the department is contemplating opening of new Fair Price Shops as per framework in vogue, which is part of Jammu and Kashmir Targeted Public Distribution System.

The Minister said that since the elected government has assumed the office, it has been thought prudent to rope in elected members also to firm up requirements of new Fair Price Shops across Jammu and Kashmir, which necessitates relook of the existing framework. He said that bifurcation of ration cards has been stopped as necessitated for adhering to targets assigned for coverage of families under the Public Distribution System, particularly AAY households, by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Gol, where the entitlement is at the scale of 35Kg per household.

The Minister said that the process of bifurcating rations cards through issuance of fresh Ration Cards would lead to implications of arranging additional food grains for such new households. He said that this also has implications in increasing the burden for the department under other schemes being run by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and in other schemes of the Government, where Public Distribution System database is utilized and household is the unit of entitlement. However, addition of eligible left out family members is being done on regular basis in their household ration cards.

He said that the government has also included the children born after 2011 up to 2016 in respective household ration cards to further augment the food needs of such households. He informed the House that the criteria adopted for inclusion under Priority household (PHH) group has been notified.

The Minister further informed the House that 8.72 beneficiaries in AAY category, 58.10 in PHH category and 31.70 beneficiaries in NPHH category have been covered under PM Ration Yojna in J&K. Besides, AAY 2451 souls, PHH 31780 souls and NPHH 22746 souls have been covered under these categories in the Chenani Constituency.