Pankaj Kahirnar started his public life in 2013 as a Supply Inspector in Nagpur under the Mahal Zone. (Pic: The Voice of Malegaon)
On September 30, Malegaon got a new Food Distribution Officer (FDO) in Pankaj Khairnar who started his career in the Food and Civil Supplies Department in 2013. At the time, he was a Supply Inspector in Nagpur under the Mahal Zone. Last month, the FDO Malegaon post, equivalent to an Assistant District Supply Officer (ADSO), was left vacant because Khairnar’s predecessor Shirish Kapade chose for a voluntary transfer. After spending eleven long years in the Food and Civil Supplies Department, Khairnar comes armed with rich experience.
Before coming to Malegaon, he served as Supply Inspecting Officer (SIO) in Navapur, Nandurbar since 2023. In 2019, he was posted as Naib Tehsildar (Supply) in Nandurbar district where he served till last year. When The Voice of Malegaon asked him what has been his observance over the past seven-eight days since he assumed the office, Khairnar said a larger number of ration cards in Malegaon urban areas is yet to be put online, a situation that has deprived many poor ration card holders of their rightful entitlements. “While making these ration cards online, we are making it sure that the weaker sections, the elderly and the differently-abled who form a big chunk of the underprivileged groups get priority and consequently are not deprived of their rightful entitlements,” he said.
Khairnar added an ‘online ration card holder’ with 12-digit RC number may lose his status as a beneficiary under the Targeted Public Distribution System if he or she fails to collect their monthly entitlement for six months in a row from the Fair Price Shop. “In such a scenario, we may give chance to other poor beneficiaries who are in waiting since long for getting their ration cards done online,” he said.
On Tuesday, when this correspondent gave him a visit, Khairnar was doing a review with the Fair Price Shop operators. He was calling them one by one in his office and asking from them the number of different types of ration cards attached to their outlets. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, there are four types of ration cards given to four different categories of consumers. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration cards are given to the poorest of the poor while the Priority House Hold (PHH) cards are given to the people with less than Rs 59,000 annual income in an urban area. Then there is a non-PHH category of ration card that does not get any foodgrains to the holder. Besides, another category is APL and farmer’s APL cards.
Till October 9 this year, there were 16,595 ration cards under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 44,776 ration cards under the Priority Household and 96,911 ration cards under the Non-PHH categories, Khairnar informed. For people’s convenience and to avoid the over-burden of work on the FDO staff, Khairnar has appealed citizens to make use of ‘the Public Log In’ facility on the RCMS portal to apply for getting corrections done in the entries on a ration cards. “Besides, they can also make such changes on the RCMS portal as deleting an unwanted name and getting a new name added to the existing ration cards,” he said.
