Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs D.N. Jeevaraj on Friday said that applications for issuing fresh below poverty line and above poverty line family ration cards will be received in November.
He told presspersons in Bangalore that steps would be initiated to issue cards, BPL or APL, to those who have been issued biometric cards, by November 15. The Minister said that “point of sale” machines were being installed at 800 fair price depots initially in Tumkur district and 5,000 more would be provided to fair price shops in five districts in three months. There are 20,499 such shops in the State and all of them would get these machines as and when the companies supply them. The Minister said that once these machines are pressed into service, no card holder or shop owner could indulge in diversion of food items. Till now, 38 lakh of the 58 lakh temporary card holders have obtained biometric cards. The remaining card holders could collect food items, provided they collect their biometric cards after furnishing their photographs.
He said that there were 99.58 lakh BPL card holders, including those who have enrolled under Anna Antyodaya Yojana facility, and 39.15 lakh APL card holders.
He said that 87.88 card holders may remain in the BPL category after the process to issue biometric cards is completed. MLAs would be requested not to pressure the government for further extension of time to temporary BPL card holders to furnish photographs for biometric cards, he said.
