GURDASPUR – The Atta-Daal Scheme might have given the SAD-BJP combine the edge in the 2012 Assembly elections, but it has now run into rough weather with over 1.42 crore blue card holders, the beneficiaries of the scheme, in the state not knowing when they will get their due.
In Gurdaspur district alone, there are 1,37028 blue card holders awaiting the benefits of the scheme, under which wheat is to be given at Rs 1 per kg while daal is to be given at Rs 20 per kg. The maximum limit of 35 kg per person per month was fixed for wheat while the limit of Dal was pegged at 2.5 kg per household at Rs 20 per kg.
Just before the General Election, Punjab was the first non-Congress state to implement the National Food Security Act after merging it with its own version of the Atta-Daal Scheme. However, the scheme has got bogged down in logistics due to various reasons.
Officials were all set to distribute wheat and daal on a six-month basis for the lot pertaining to December (2013)-May (2014) when the Election Commission of India directed the state government to distribute the food stock on a monthly basis. This decision meant that the beneficiaries in Gurdaspur district got their quota for the month of April. However, these beneficiaries are yet to receive the rest of their five-month quota.
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