Collector C. Kamaraj placed under suspension a fair price shop salesman and a woman assistant at a ration shop in Race Course Colony on Tuesday, officials said.
A team comprising District Supply Officer N. Murugiah, Joint Registrar Kumar and Deputy Registrar Jayaraman accompanied the Collector in the surprise check.
They visited some ration shops at Viratipatthu, Achampathu, Palkalai Nagar, Thidiyan, Chekkanoorani, Perayur, Elumalai and Sulappapuram in the district. The name of the suspended salesman was given as Gunasekaran and the woman assistant as Krishnammal.
According to the officials, Mr. Kamaraj interacted with the card holders who visited the shops and gathered information about the quality and availability of essential commodities supplied. He also picked up some fake cards and handed them over to the officials for probe and action.
Meanwhile, public thronged the Collectorate on Tuesday and submitted applications seeking necessary amendments in their cards. The DSO said that there are about nine lakh family cards in the district.
After the first round of door-to-door verification carried out last year in the district, a shopwise list of bogus and not-in-use cards was prepared.
However, when the card holders submitted adequate proof, they were permitted to buy essential commodities.
In a bid to eliminate bogus cards, the State Government had intensified the checks. Keeping this in mind, the officials conducted a second verification and prepared a fresh list of bogus and dormant card-holders.
Special counters have been opened since Monday in the respective taluk offices and at the Collectorate for urbanites to file their applications preferring appeal or seeking changes in the cards and for inclusion in the card holders list.
'On Monday and Tuesday, a total of 500 applications were received, officials said. The final list would be prepared and put up by next month at the shops, Mr. Murugiah said.
