The government of Telangana is planning to reduce the number of ration cards issued to households below poverty line by about 25 per cent by implementing the guidelines for issuance of new cards that will replace the existing ones by the year-end. There are currently 80.13 lakh cards in the State.
The plan to restrict the number of BPL cards stems from the fear of increased burden with the implementation of Food Security Act (FSA). Each household is to get 5 kg of rice per head every month without any upper limit on the size of the household. The Act mandates coverage of 61 per cent rural and 41 per cent urban population under it and the expenditure on supply of commodities on the BPL cards issued beyond that has to be borne by the State government.
Official sources disclosed that the government has not framed any new guidelines for issuance of new ration cards under the FSA, but a policy decision was taken to deny the benefit to the households which have four-wheelers, large businesses, large buildings and prominent professionals among family members.
“The Revenue Department officials who will scrutinise the applications have been told to use discretion while selecting the beneficiaries by assessing the living standards of the households,” the official said.
The number of BPL cards including white ration cards (81.1 lakh), ‘Antyodaya Anna Yojna’ cards (7.87 lakh) and ‘Annapurna’ cards (0.2 lakh) was 89.17 lakh on July 1 this year. However, the number stands at 80.13 lakh as on October 20 after bogus ration cards were weeded out by seeding with Aadhaar cards and field verification.
In response to the government’s decision to accept applications from October 8 for issuance of new ration cards, 89,66,701 households have applied for new cards till October 20. The number is likely to go up by 5-6 lakh with the applications expected to come mostly from the urban areas of Ranga Reddy district and Hyderabad city. “The process in rural areas was almost saturated as the number of applicants at designated centres was very thin for the last couple of days,” the sources stated.
