Date:19/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/19/stories/2007071952170300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Registration of applications for ration cards goes hi-tech

Staff Reporter

Work will be completed on or before August 15, says Theni Collector

PROCESS APACE: Collector Har Sahay Meena launching online registration of applications for ration cards in Theni on Wednesday.

THENI: Registration of applications for ration cards goes hi-tech in the district to speed up processing as well as distribution, said Collector Har Sahay Meena.

Launching computerisation of registration of applications for ration cards at the Collectorate here on Wednesday, he said all the applications seeking ration cards would be directly fed into computers and sent through online to ELCOT office in Chennai for quick processing and printing.

An office to register applications started functioning in the second floor of the Collectorate from Wednesday. This computer section would send all necessary details through internet for printing cards to the ELCOT. Earlier, application papers had been dumped to Chennai for processing. Now, all processing work would be completed at the district office itself.

Already, 6,646 application forms had been sent to the ELCOT office for printing of ration cards. But we had received 1,357 printed cards and distributed them.

Later, the ELCOT office had returned 5,289 applications to the computer centre for online registration. Computersation of those applications had also been commenced. On an average, 500 applications could be fed into computers a day.

The work would be completed on or before August 15. Besides, 7,773 fresh applications received from April 1 were under enquiry. After the enquiry, processing of eligible application forms would commence. Later, they would be forwarded to ELCOT office for printing.

With commencement of online registration, applicants could get their cards quickly in future, Mr. Meena said.