TS going slow on issue of new ration cards

The government of Telangana appears to be in no hurry to issue new ration cards – food security cards, as hardly a few days time is left to complete the task by the month-end as announced by Minister for Civil Supplies Etela Rajender in November last and reiterated several times later.

As such the cardholders are being issued the enhanced quota of rice at 6 kg per unit (person) on the existing cards, but the delay in issuance of new cards is denying the benefit to the eligible households which do not have ration cards. Such families have applied for cards in October last along with the existing cardholders.

Official sources told

The Hindu that the number of households found eligible for issuance of below poverty level, to be in pink colour this time, during the ongoing scrutiny and field-level enquiries has already crossed 85 lakh. It includes the number of 6.41 lakh ‘Antyodaya Anna Yojana’(AAY) cards fixed to the State. Of the over 1.05 crore applications received for new ration cards, scrutiny has already been completed in respect of about 90 per cent of them.

“Field enquiries are consuming time as the officials at that level are cross-checking the information twice since they have been made responsible for both issuance to ineligible families and their denial to eligible households,” the sources said.

On being asked about the expected additional burden on the State government due to enhanced quota of rice per unit and removal of cap on the number of persons (units) in a family in drawing rice, the official stated that the information (data) in the applications found to be eligible in the scrutiny was being computerised so that the actual number of units was ascertained. As on November 1 last year, the number of BPL (white) cards, including over seven-lakh AAY and ‘Annapurna’ cards issued to the poorest of the poor was 80.13 lakh. The number of BPL cards is likely to go much beyond the mandate of Food Security Act. The Centre has already made it clear that the expenditure on supply of commodities on the BPL cards issued beyond the FSA limits has to be borne by the State government itself, burdening its coffers.

Field-level officials conducting thorough enquiries to avoid action