Maharashtra Seeks Higher PDS Quota, Mulls Raising Ration Card Income Ceiling
Mumbai: Considering the growing population of Maharashtra, the BJP-led Mahayuti government has urged the Center to increase foodgrain allocation under the State’s Public Distribution System (PDS) to cover 8.88 crore beneficiaries from the current 7.16 crore under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. The province is also considering raising the annual income cap for Orange Ration Card holders, currently known as Priority Households (PHH). Ration card holders’ income from Rs 59,000 to nearly Rs two lakh increases eligibility for subsidized foodgrains.
The Food and Civil Supplies Department has recently written to the Central government seeking to increase the beneficiary limit prescribed under NFSA to 8.88 crore from the current 7,00,16,684, officials said. They said that when NFSA was implemented, the population of Maharashtra was around 11 crore. However, in the last 13 years, the state’s population has increased to approximately 14 million. “In such a scenario, we have written to the Central government requesting an increase in the number of beneficiaries under NFSA,” officials said.
NFSA has been implemented in the state of Maharashtra since 1 February 2014. As per the Act, Maharashtra has been allocated to cover 54.32% of the rural population (46.971 million beneficiaries) and 45.34% of the urban population (23.045 million beneficiaries), taking the total number of beneficiaries identified for the state to 70.016 million. (7.0016 crore).
Following the implementation of NFSA, the Maharashtra government fixed the annual family income ceiling for beneficiaries in urban areas eligible to receive subsidized food grains under the priority household (PHH) category at Rs 44,000 for beneficiaries in rural areas. Considering that wages in both rural and urban areas have increased significantly over the years, the state government is also considering increasing the income ceiling of PHH ration card holders. For this purpose, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Ration Controller and Director Civil Supplies Chandrakant Dange to recommend revised eligibility criteria. The revised income ceiling was decided taking into account factors such as hunger indicators, wages of skilled and unskilled workers in organized and unorganized sectors, and per capita income of the state.
A senior official, requesting anonymity, said the Dange committee submitted its report in April and recommended increasing the income limit by around Rs 1.80 lakh in urban areas and Rs 1.20 lakh in rural areas. “The food and civil supply department is discussing the Dange committee’s report. It will soon prepare a proposal for approval from the state cabinet. The proposal is expected to come before the state cabinet within the next month,” the senior official said. he said.
According to the senior official, if the Dange committee’s recommendation is implemented, the number of beneficiaries in urban areas, especially in Mumbai and Mumbai suburbs, will increase by about five per cent.
