The stage is being readied for crediting ₹1,500 each into the accounts of the white ration cardholders to meet their daily expenses during lockdown as promised by the State government.
The Civil Supplies Department has received the concurrence of the Finance Department to deposit the amount in the accounts of the cardholders. The Finance Department had recently deposited ₹1,314 crore into the account of the Civil Supplies Department which would, in turn, be deposited into the accounts of the cardholders.
The development comes in the light of the assurance given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The Chief Minister has announced that the government would distribute 12 kg rice to each member of the families of 87.59 lakh cardholders across the State as part of relief measures taken up during the lockdown period which has now been extended to April 30.
In addition, the government has decided to credit ₹1,500 into the accounts of all the 87.59 lakh cardholders enabling them to buy other essentials, including vegetables and pulses. The quantum of relief has been pegged at ₹2,417 crore — ₹1,103 crore for 3.3 lakh tonne rice and ₹1,3,14 crore as cash component.
Senior officials of the Civil Supplies department said the account number of majority of the cardholders have been obtained with the help of bankers who identified them through the Aadhar numbers of individual cardholders. The Centre for Good Governance on its part utilized software developed by it to upload the details of the cardholders along with their account numbers.
Though distribution of rice was taken up on April 1 itself, the process for crediting the assured amount into the accounts of the cardholders was delayed because of the procedural aspects which involved a secured way of transferring the amounts into the cardholders’ accounts. “We are in contact with the National Payment Corporation of India, the umbrella organization for all retail payments across the country, to ensure that crediting of the amounts into the cardholders’ accounts can be made hassle free,” a senior official told The Hindu.
As almost all the issues had been resolved till date, the department is gearing up to start crediting the amount into the accounts in a day or two. The department has asked the cardholders whose accounts were yet to be included to contact the nearest fair price shop dealer of the Civil Supplies official to avail the benefit.
