Bogus ration cards to be weeded out
Hyderabad, Dec.15: With the completion of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, the civil supplies department has decided to crack the whip on bogus ration card holders in Hyderabad.
Earlier, the department was under pressure not to weed out the bogus ration cards in view of the civic body polls.
As many as 425 teams comprising 10,200 personnel will take up a door-to-door survey in the city soon to verify all the 12.90 lakh white and pink cards.
Though the officials claim that it is only an integrated survey to know the socio-economic conditions, the aim of the survey is to weed out all the bogus ration cards. With this, the state government plans to provide commodities under the public distribution system only to eligible persons.
Though the survey began in August in other parts of the state, the state government did not take up the process in the city fearing an adverse impact on the prospects of the ruling party in the civic polls.
The Congress ministers, Mr Danam Nagender and Mr Mukesh Goud, and other MLAs from the city reportedly had persuaded the government to defer the identification of bogus ration cards.
After the completion of GHMC elections, the state government has given a green signal to the civil supplies department to begin the weeding-out process.
The Hyderabad chief rationing officer, Mr D.S. Lokesh Kumar, and the civil supplies officer, Mr Ahmed Abdul Aleem, held a meeting with the survey teams and asked them to complete the survey within 30 days. Each team would verify around 750 cards and note down the latest details.
“The survey aims to ensure that all the eligible persons get new ration cards. At the same time, the teams will identify bogus cards and provide us the details. The removal of the cards will not be done on the spot since we have to cross-check the details. The persons who hold more than two cards will be identified and their ration cards will be cancelled after cross-verification,” said Mr Kumar.
The survey teams would stay in each of the localities for 10 days so that the applicants can approach them for change of address and inclusion of other family members.
Latest Comments
If the civil supplies department explores possibilities of procuring cereals and staple rice whose prices have skyrocketed and become unafforadable to large sections of middle and poorer sections, it would be more expedient. This is better than wasting time on weeding out bogus ration cards. While removing fake ration cards is needed, the fault lies squarely with the department that issued rations cards indiscriminately before the general elections in 2009.
Instead of wasting the department's time and energy, better if it manages to dehoard stoks in godowns and ensure their supplies through the fair price shops. The mess up of bogus ration cards is only because they are issued indiscriminiately by the dept before general elections for political mileage.
If we do the survey properly, we will find more and more people who hold white cards instead of pink cards. And in ration shops per month there may be 50 to 100 people who will not get ration propely. In this matter also we have to take care.
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