Negligence led to loss of Rs 2.76 cr to Govt exchequer
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 27: The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) failed to distribute around 1.3 lakh ration cards out of total 15.35 lakh printed (from 2015 to 2018), among the consumers that led to non-collection of Rs 1.07 crore as well as short remittance of Rs 1.69 crore into Government Account.
According to the latest report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the Department of FCS&CA Jammu in collaboration with Jammu and Kashmir Bank ordered printing of 15.35 lakh ration cards from 2015-16 onwards to be distributed among the beneficiaries on the basis of Census 2011 and the cost of these ration cards was to be borne by the FCS&CA Department and J&K Bank in the ratio of 60:40.
The CAG report said these 15.35 lakh ration cards were to be distributed among the consumers at the prescribed rates and the Department even released Rs 1.82 crore as printing cost to J&K Bank. “During the period from November 2017 to February 2020, a total of 9,94,204 ration cards were received by the 11 test-checked field units from the Directorate of FCS&CA for distribution to the consumers but only 8,64,083 ration cards were issued and the balance 1,30,121 cards were still lying with the respective Assistant Directors and no effort was made to distribute the same among consumers,” the report said, adding, non-distribution of 1,30,121 ration cards resulted in non-collection of Rs 1.07 crore.
The report pointed out that for the 8,64,083 ration cards which were distributed to consumers of different categories, sale proceeds of Rs 7.02 crore were to be recovered, as per prescribed rates, from the consumers but only a sum of Rs 5.33 crore was remitted into the Government Account, thereby resulting in short collection/short remittance of Rs 1.69 crore.
After CAG’s observation, the Chief Accounts Officer of the Department said that the cards could not be distributed as the DCs of the concerned districts who were nominated by the Government for identification of eligible beneficiaries under different categories, did not provide them verification/identification lists of the beneficiaries in time while some Assistant Directors of the Department attributed reasons for non-distribution to digitization of ration cards. They said that due to digitization of ration cards, the beneficiaries did not collect the printed cards.
“Whatever would have been the reason but the fact remains that the ration cards printed and not distributed are still lying with the Assistant Directors. The validity of the ration cards was up to June 2018 with the exception of 7,348 ration cards where the validity is from June 2015 to 2025. Thus, most of the non-distributed ration cards have become redundant now and in view of digitization of targeted public distribution system, the possibility of usage of even 7,348 ration cards (which have the validity till 2025) in future is remote,” the CAG report said.
It said that non-distribution of 1,30,121 ration cards printed during the period 2015 to 2018 to the consumers in 11 test checked units of FCS&CA Department led to non-realization of Rs 1.07 crore towards Government Revenue and in addition to this, there was short collection/short-remittance of Rs 1.69 crore collected from issuance of ration cards.
The CAG said the matter was referred to the concerned Department/Government in May 2020 but the reply was still awaited. In its report, the CAG said to the FCS&CA Department to ensure in future that printed ration cards are issued expeditiously so that cost can be recovered as per norms and remitted into the Government account immediately.
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