During the Covid pandemic, amidst nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiative to provide free ration, offering significant relief to the poor sections of society.

Under the guidance of PM Modi and the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, this scheme was implemented on a large scale in Uttar Pradesh, benefiting 15 crore people of the state directly

This scheme proved to be a big factor in the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and its beneficiaries voted in large numbers in support of CM Yogi, BJP leaders claimed here on Friday.

They firmly believe this scheme will again play a pivotal role in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when 3.6 crore ration card holders and their families cast their mandate on EVMs at the polling booths in the state. Driven by a positive feeling towards the double-engine government, their eyes will be seen searching for the symbol of the lotus button.

“In difficult times, honest efforts made to provide benefits of free ration scheme to the people with complete transparency would help fulfil CM Yogi’s resolution of 80 in 80 in 2024,” a senior BJP functionary said.

This time, PM Modi has set a target of 400 seats for the NDA. In such a situation, CM Yogi has also resolved to fulfil PM Modi’s goal by winning 80 out of 80 seats in the state.

In this scenario, focus is being placed on the beneficiary category which received ration in a transparent manner. The scheme’s benefits were promptly provided to those with valid ration cards, while new cards were made for other eligible people on a priority basis.

As of November 28, 2023, Uttar Pradesh had a total of 3.60 crore card holders, benefiting a total of 15.06 crore people through the free ration scheme. These include 40.87 lakh Antyodaya cardholders (totalling 1.32 crore units) and 3.19 crore eligible household cardholders (totalling 13.73 crore units). Not only this, 5,47,652 new cardholders have also been added between January 2023 and November 2023.

The BJP claims that the state government has paid special attention to transparency in ration distribution so that no eligible person is left out. For this, arrangements have been made for distribution through electronic point of sale (e-POS) machines. As per the allocation, distribution is being ensured up to 94.68 per cent through e-POS machines. Installation of e-POS machines is being ensured in all 79,138 fair price shops in rural and urban areas. Apart from this, Aadhaar feeding of heads of ration cards has been done up to 99.93 per cent and Aadhaar seeding has been done up to 99.94 percent. At the same time, 99.26 percent of Aadhaar feeding and 99.55 per cent of Aadhaar seeding of units present in ration cards has been done. The distribution through Aadhaar authentication has been ensured until October 2023, which is 99.82 per cent.

One Nation One Card has also been ensured in the state. Under this, from May 2020 to October 2023, 43,392 cardholders from other states have received free ration in the state, while the process has been successfully taken forward for 34,83,906 cardholders of UP to get ration in other states. The state government has issued a total of 34.58 lakh new ration cards from April 2020 to October 2022 during the Covid epidemic.

Apart from this, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, 126.88 MT of food grains will be supplied from May 2021 to October 2022. Furthermore, ration cards have been issued to 14,94,593 disabled individuals under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), and ration has been delivered to 9,829 disabled ration card holders at their homes.