Thiruvananthapuram: The cabinet on Wednesday decided to increase the number of priority ration card holders in the state from 28 lakhs to 34 lakhs. This will be done by including six lakh more persons in the Anthyodaya and Annayojana schemes. The existing BPL and APL cards will be replaced by priority and non-priority cards once the national food security Act is implemented.
At present, the number of priority card holders is 28.37 lakhs and Anthyodaya - Annayojana beneficiaries 5.5 lakh. Those who own more than one acre of land, house with an area of over 1,000 sqft or four-wheelers, employees of government and public sector banks and income tax payers have been excluded from the priority list. The draft list will be verified through social audit. If anyone is falsely included in the priority category, he/she will have to face penal action.
The final list of beneficiaries would be prepared by January 2017. The istribution of new ration cards would begin on February 1 and end on March 15.
Meanwhile, the Opposition staged a walkout in the Assembly on Wednesday alleging that the government had failed to provide facilities in all the village and panchayat offices for receiving the complaints on ration cards. They also asked the government to extend the deadline by 15 days from November 5 to make corrections in the new ration cards. Minister P. Thilothaman, who blamed the UDF government for the delay in the ration card renewal, said that so far 1.47 lakh complaints had been received in the last couple of days, of which nearly 8,000 were sorted out.
