Officials in the District Supply Office said that 92 per cent of the Public Distribution System (PDS) family card holders of the district have renewed their cards to buy essential commodities at subsidised price in 2015, in the drive carried out from December 15 to 31.
Pasting renewal sheets in the more than 10 lakh family cards was carried out at all the 1,375 PDS outlets in the district, with the deadline fixed as December 31. An official said that the district’s average was more than the State average of 90 per cent.
The official said that 77 per cent cards were renewed in the first five days. This was possible due to the efforts taken by the district administration to announce the schedule for card holders to go to the shop on specific days for renewal.
Of the total of 10 taluks in the district, the highest renewal rate of 95 per cent was recorded at Sulur and Valparai taluks. It is learnt that renewal was good at the 277 part-time PDS outlets that operate only on Tuesdays and Thursdays as there were fewer card holders.
In the city, the renewal was between 92 and 93 per cent. At 76 per cent, Mettupalayam taluk recorded the lowest renewal rate in the district. An official said that they were analysing the reason and that efforts were taken for speedy renewal of the remaining cards.
Officials said that the Government was yet to fix a deadline to renew family cards. Inner sheets could be pasted at the PDS outlets where card holders bought essential commodities.
More than 7,700 family cards are N Cards, as they do not procure commodities in PDS shops and use the card as address proof. They could renew their cards online. But, card holders who would like to change their existing family cards to N cards have to go to the Taluk Supply Office for the process.
S. Venkatesan of Ramanathapuram said that this was a more cumbersome procedure compared to the renewal of family cards in PDS outlets. “The Government should consider introducing an easier procedure to convert regular cards to N cards,” he said.
