Anna Bhagya: ₹456 crore credited to 78 lakh ration cards holders in 24 districts

Karnataka govt. has credited ₹456.73 cr to 78.4 lakh beneficiaries under Anna Bhagya scheme. DBT is still under process for 18.86 lakh beneficiaries in 7 districts. Govt. transfers ₹170/month/beneficiary in lieu of 5 kg rice. 1.28 cr ration card holders, 97.27 lakh eligible; 8.7 lakh kept out. 21 lakh yet to be eligible; most need Aadhaar-bank link or bank acct. Fair price shops to help with Aadhaar seeding/bank accts. Soon all 21 lakh will benefit from DBT.

The State government, which started direct benefit transfer (DBT) in lieu of the additional 5 kg of rice to beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme for BPL and Antyodaya card holders on July 10, has so far credited ₹456.73 crore to 78.4 lakh beneficiaries.

However, due to technical reasons, the DBT is still under process for beneficiaries in seven districts. The Food and Civil Supplies Department says that one file can process only 20,000 DBTs and multiple files have to be generated for every district. As it consumes time, the payments have been delayed but they will be completed in eight days. The districts yet to receive DBT are Chamarajanagar, Vijayapura, Hassan, Chickballapur, Udupi, Vijayanagara, and Shivamogga. The total number of eligible beneficiaries in these districts is 18.86 lakh.

The government transfers ₹170 per beneficiary per month in lieu of 5 kg of rice (₹34 per kg). The amount will be deposited in the bank account linked to the Aadhaar number of the head of the family. The government decided on the DBT route after the Central government refused to supply rice. 

Although there are 1.28 crore ration card holders in the State, currently, 97,27,160 are eligible for the scheme. According to an official in the Food and Civil Supplies Department, about 8.7 lakh ration card holders who did not avail themselves of the scheme for the last three months have been kept out of it now. About 21 lakh card holders are yet to be eligible; most of them have not linked their Aadhaar to bank accounts and a few of them do not have bank accounts.

The official said fair price shops will display the names of ration card holders who do not have bank accounts or have not linked bank accounts with Aadhaar and they will help with the Aadhaar seeding or opening bank accounts in post offices. This is under progress and soon all the remaining 21 lakh card holders will also be enabled to benefit from the DBT, the official added.