Municipal Administration and Wakf Minister Qamar-ul Islam has directed the district administration to weed out all bogus ration cards and ensure that only eligible families were issued ration cards.
Speaking at the launch of the Anna Bhagya scheme here on Wednesday, under which BPL families will receive 30 kg of rice a month at Re. 1 a kg, Mr. Islam said that according to one estimate, there are more than 1.2 lakh bogus ration cards in Gulbarga district.
However, officials should not harass eligible families and deny them foodgrains under the public distribution system (PDS), he said.
Mr. Islam said that there were several joint families in which the sons live with their families in the same house.
“In such cases, the authorities should be lenient in allowing such family unit to continue to possess the ration card.”\
‘Explain details’
The Minister, who also inaugurated the e-weighing machine with biometric facility, said the owners of fair price shops should explain the details of the Anna Bhagya scheme to beneficiaries. They should not be harassed and denied foodgrains.
Mr. Islam said that the Union government had notified the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 and that it would go a long way in helping poor people and ending hunger.
Deputy Commissioner N.S. Prasannakumar, in his introductory remarks, said that ineligible holders of BPL cards and people with multiple BPL and APL cards should immediately surrender these cards to the authorities.
He said that without people’s cooperation, no government scheme could achieve its full potential.
Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat Pallavi Akurathi, Superintendent of Police Amit Singh, Umesh Jadav, Dattatreya Patil, G. Ramakrishna, MLAs, and Allamprabhu Patil and Amarnath Patil, MLCs, were present.
