The State Civil Supplies Department has decided to take up with the Chief Electoral Officer the matter relating to relaxation of the Model Code of Conduct to enable issue of fresh ration cards.
This is in response to several requests received by the department, says a senior official.
CEO Praveen Kumar said that relaxation of the code would be considered by the Commission only when the department sought it specifically. As of now, the issue of fresh ration cards was not covered under the relaxed norms.
The official of the Civil Supplies Department said the existing cards were valid up to June 2011. By the end of next month, the Department would seek the government's approval for extending the validity by six more months. There are about 1.96 crore cards, of whom 1.84 crore are green cards (rice option cards); 10.7 lakh white cards (all commodities except rice); 60,000 police cards and 62,000 no-commodity cards.
