Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Monday delinked ration cards ‘now referred to as food security cards’ from welfare schemes. Hence-forth ration cards will be valid only to get rations and will no longer be considered a document to ascertain BPL status.
Ration cards will not be valid for claiming Aarogyasri, CM’s Relief Fund, 2-BHK housing scheme, fee reimbursement scheme, scholarships etc. However, the decision of the government to delink ration cards without coming up with an alternative will be a big blow to BPL families.
The previous Congress governments, between 2004 and 2014, had linked all government benefits with ration cards. They were eligible for free treatment in private and corporate hospitals under Aarogyasri, free education in colleges, free houses, claims of up to Rs 3 lakh under CMRF for medical treatment etc.
This had led to huge irregularities in the sanctioning of ration cards. Lakhs of households that did not fall under the BPL category managed to get ration cards through political influence and by bribing officials.
Even state government employees who draw thousands of rupees as salary per month secured white ration cards. When the government took up a special drive to weed out bogus cards between 2009 and 2014, it was found that nearly 98,000 government employees held ration cards to avail Aarogyasri for their families.
The Telangana government felt that if white cards were delinked with schemes, it would automatically check bogus cards There were 1.47 crore ration cards when Telangana was formed. Of them, 91.94 lakh are white ration cards and 15.07 lakh are pink cards. However, the total number of households in the state as per Census 2011 was only 84.20 lakh. This meant that there were 22 lakh more ration cards than there were households.
Besides, another 41 lakh Antyodaya cards (green cards) were issued by the Centre since 2000, to provide subsidised rice and wheat. The TS government identified lakhs of bogus cards and cancelled them.
Civil supplies minister Etela Rajender said, “There is no need for BPL families to worry about losing welfare schemes due to delinking of ration cards. The government will collect BPL data from the Civil Supplies department, TS Household survey and Social and Economic Census etc. All those eligible will get government benefits as usual.”
