Hyderabad: Civil supplies minister Etela Rajender on Monday warned people holding unutilised ration cards to surrender them immediately or face criminal cases.
Interacting with the media in the Secretariat after reviewing departmental issues with officials, Mr Rajender said that unutilised ration cards have become a tool in the hands of unscrupulous ration dealers and brokers to divert subsidised rice and other essential commodities to the open market.
“A large number of ineligible persons have secured ration cards though they never take ration. They obtained ration cards with a hope of availing welfare sops like Aarogyasri, fee reimbursement, scholarships etc. even after the government has made it clear that ration cards are meant only for obtaining subsidised rice and will not be considered for welfare schemes. Some ration dealers and brokers are exploiting such unutilised cards to their advantage and diverting their quota to the open market,” the minister said.
He said the government has taken up a special drive to weed out such bogus and unutilised cards and had already cancelled thousands of such cards across the state.
“The government will not spare anyone indulging in such malpractices. Be it officials, ration dealers, brokers or cardholders, they will have to face cases. We will not hesitate to even file PD cases against them,” Mr Rajender said.
Stating that the government has been supplying rice at just '1 per kg for 2.70 crore beneficiaries in the state, the he said, “We are supplying 6 kg rice per head without an upper ceiling on the number of family members in a household. No state in the country does so.”
He complimented newly-appointed civil supplies commissioner C.V. Anand for taking effective steps in curbing illegal diversion of PDS stocks and check bogus cards.
“Henceforth, millers will have to provide bank guarantee to the government on the paddy stocks supplied to them for milling PDS rice,” Mr Rajender said, adding that the millers have to return milled rice stocks to the government within 45 days.
“Earlier, there were no instances of millers returning complete stocks. But due to the steps taken by the TRS government, 98 per cent stocks were returned this year and balance 2 per cent will be recovered soon. PD cases will be filed against millers if they evade or divert PDS stocks,” the minister warned.
