As many as 106 people received Below the Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards on the spot at the mass contact programme conducted by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Friday.
Like in the previous mass contact programmes, petitions seeking conversion of Above the Poverty Line (APL) ration cards to BPL category outnumbered other grievances.
This time, as many as 14,957 petitions were received by the district-level screening committee headed by Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar for consideration at the programme.
Of these, 8,527 were requests from ration card-holders for changing their category to BPL.
After scrutiny of the petitions, Mr. Chandy directed the officials to disburse BPL cards to 106 eligible persons. The eligible candidates collected the cards from the counter of the Civil Supplies Department set up at the venue of the programme.
Other petitions
Other petitions received by the committee pertained to medical assistance, land for constructing houses, pension for the physically challenged, employment, and water and electricity connections.
Mr. Chandy also received thousands of petitions directly from the people who could not apply online before the commencement of the programme.
