Subsidised wheat given to ineligible BPL cardholders: CAG

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Haryana government for incurring an avoidable expenditure of Rs 18.59 crore on giving subsidized wheat to ineligible BPL cardholders.
In a CAG report on Social, General and Economic Sectors, which was tabled at Haryana Assembly today, the government auditor found that Haryana's Food and Supplies department incurred Rs 18.59 crore on subsidy at the rate of Rs 2.02 per kg for providing wheat to 1,73,907 ineligible BPL card holders during the period December 2011 to March 2013.
On the basis of survey conducted by the Government in July 2008, there were 12,97,058 BPL families (inclusive of 3,02,500 AAY families) in Haryana, which increased to 13,92,552 (14 districts in 2009 and 7 districts in 2010), says the report.

The Government of India recognised only 7,89,000 BPL families for the issue of subsidised foodgrains and had not revised estimates after 2005.
Haryana government treated the remaining 6,03,552 BPL families as State Below Poverty Line (SBPL) families and these families were given foodgrains out of the allotment meant for above poverty line (APL) families and the difference in the rate of foodgrains was borne by the state government, it said.
The Government of India (GOI) allocates the foodgrains to state governments for distribution at specially subsidised rates to families identified under Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY) through fair price shops.

The state governments are required to formulate suitable guidelines for the purpose of identification of BPL and AAY families and to get the lists of BPL and AAY families reviewed every year for deletion of ineligible families and inclusion of eligible families.

CAG noticed that the lists of BPL/AAY families were not reviewed by the Government and the survey conducted in 2011 showed that ineligible BPL/AAY ration card holders remained included in these lists.
The government intimated in November 2011 to the Punjab and Haryana High Court following a civil writ petition that 3,38,949 BPL card holders were ineligible. MORE PTI CHS

The Court further ordered in November 2011 that BPL cards of all those who are found to have provided wrong information to obtain the same, be cancelled forthwith.
After cancellation of ineligible BPL card holders, the number of BPL card holders should have been 10,53,603 whereas there were still 12,27,510 BPL card holders in March 2013.
Due to non-cancellation of 1,73,907 ineligible BPL cards, the State Government had incurred an avoidable excess expenditure of Rs 18.59 crore on subsidy at the rate of Rs 2.02 per Kg for providing wheat to these families during the period December 2011 to March 2013, it said.