Surguja. The shocking thing has come to light from the district. Actually, ration is also being raised in the name of dead people here. The matter came to light when the investigation found that many people who have passed away, their names are still recorded in the ration card and ration is being taken every month in their name.
About 14 percent ration card holders in Surguja district are those who have not updated their KYC. Due to lack of KYC updates, the names of the dead are recorded in the ration card for years, due to which the department does not get the correct information about it. However, the Food Department has started the process of taking certificates of the dead from the sarpanches and secretaries of the village for the last six months to solve this problem. On this basis, the names of about 28,000 dead people have been removed from the ration card in the last three years.
According to the Food Department, the names of 28,000 dead have been removed from the ration card in the last three years. But according to the Department of Planning and Statistics, the death of 32,278 people has been registered in the same period. This means that the names of about 4,000 dead are still recorded in the ration card and ration is being raised every month in their name. This not only highlights the disturbances in the Public Distribution System (PDS), but is also causing financial damage to the government.
The government is constantly making efforts to make the PDS system transparent and effective, but this system is being affected due to the negligence of the authorities. Currently, the Food Department has updated 86 percent KYC and is getting the dead verification of the dead from panchayats to update the remaining 14 percent.