Jammu Relief & Rehabilitation Commissioner(M) J&K Dr Arvind Karwani, accompanied by Additional Secretary Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation & Reconstruction (DMRRR) Sudhir Bali; Joint Director Planning DMRRR Sonia Vaid; Dy Commissioner Relief Vijay Sharma and officers from Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Relief Organization and Social Welfare Department, visited Migrant Camp Nagrota and Mini Township Jagti, to take on ground stock of the ration distribution in terms of the Special Relief Ration Scheme for Kashmiri/Jammu Migrants notified by the J&K Government recently.
More than 20,000 ration cards have been punched into the national database and about 8500 migrant families have received free ration in terms of the Scheme so far.
Relief Ration Card holders, irrespective of categorization are being provided 11 kg of free ration per person per month along with 1 kg of sugar, while migrants under the Non-Relief category, such as pensioners, categorized as NPHH, are being provided 5 kg of ration at Government-approved NFSA rates.
Interacting with beneficiaries at various locations, the team of officers clarified that those migrant ration card holders who may not have been able to collect the ration during the last month (April) can collect the two-month ration (April and May) during the current month. “Those who may have received less quantity of ration due to any technical glitch in April or in the current month will also get the balance ration,” the team assured. On-spot directions were also issued for making corrections in ration cards in a time-bound manner.
A special camp was also organized on the spot by the Social Welfare Department to facilitate eligible migrants to fill applications for various social sector schemes.
As many as 654 migrant families in District Jammu have benefitted from various social sector schemes in the last two months like Old Age Pension, Widow Pension, Disability Pension and Marriage Assistance, after integration of their ration cards into NFSA database.
This is in addition to the free ration and cash assistance. Migrants could not avail these benefits for the last 35 years due to their ration cards being non-digitized and not integrated with the national database.
The team of officers interacted with the beneficiaries of various social sector schemes. People were advised to beware of some mischievous elements spreading false propaganda on social media about the discontinuation of migrant status after integration into the NFSA database. It was reiterated that the integration of migrant ration cards into the NFSA database is being done in compliance with relevant Government Orders and rules, aimed to enable the migrants to avail benefits of various schemes, without affecting their migrant status and relief benefits.
Dr Karwani along with other officers inspected the ongoing work of Multi Purpose Community Hall being built up in Jagti and other civil works going on in Jagti and Nagrota area. He also took stock of the basic amenities provided by the different government departments, particularly the issue of water supply in the area. The Executive Engineer and other officers of the Jal Shakti Department were instructed to ensure regular water supply in the area and to take all necessary steps well before the monsoons for a sustainable solution for an uninterrupted water supply. It was also directed to get the regular lab testing of water samples done.
