Date:16/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/16/stories/2005051615330500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

New ration cards soon

Staff Reporter

Programme to be undertaken in four phases; BPL families stand to gain Programme to be taken up in four phases

HYDERABAD: The State Government will launch distribution of new bio-metric ration cards in the last week of the month, most probably on May 25.

All those without cards and below poverty line (BPL) families stand to gain. The programme, to be undertaken in four phases, will be confined to municipalities in the first two phases and gram panchayats in the third. In the final phase, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad limits will be covered.

White and pink cards already in circulation under the Public Distribution System (PDS) but inconsistent with family size or other norms or torn or mutilated will also be exchanged with new ones incorporating latest information.

The programme would involve review of the entire card system, the Civil Supplies Minister, G. Vijayarama Rao, and the Civil Supplies Commissioner, Bhanwarlal, told reporters here on Sunday. Mr. Rao, Mr. Bhanwarlal and the Andhra Pradesh Technology Services (APTS) Managing Director, Ajay Sawhney, earlier presided over an orientation programme in this regard for Joint Collectors and District Supply Officers. The APTS will select private vendors and agencies to execute work through tenders.

The Minister said computerised cards would be issued to applicants on a single day. They would bear group photographs of the family and also iris or thumb impression of individual members. They would also have coupons for two years.

The teams would be located at centres central to four or five polling stations or a municipal ward. They would cover the entire population in the area in three rounds over one-and-a-half months.

In the first phase, the programme would cover an estimated 18 lakh families in 23 municipalities. A municipality in each district and necessarily the district headquarters town would be covered. The remaining municipalities would be taken up in the second round.

Mr. Rao said the beneficiaries would have to bear the cost of the card. It was likely to be around Rs. 45 a card, but the final rate would depend upon the quotation of the agencies.

He added that there were 1.40 crore white card and 58.75 lakh pink cardholders in the State. A pilot survey had shown that 14.12 lakh families were found eligible for white cards but did not have them. There were 5.42 lakh families possessing white cards without eligibility and there were 8.45 lakh cards under circulation without their owners being traceable.

Stringent norms

Those who own more than 2.5 acres wet or five acres of dry land; persons owning 2/3/4 wheelers (other than those provided under self-employment/poverty alleviation programmes by Government/financial institutions and driver-cum-owner of autorickshaws); persons whose electricity consumption is more than Rs. 6,000 per annum; owners of pucca buildings with a plinth area of 500 sq.ft.; permanent employment in Government/organised sector like companies/industries/firms.