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Family cards to be issued in 60 days

CHENNAI: Food Minister E.V. Velu informed the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that all eligible applicants would receive their family cards within 60 days of their applying for them. If this was not done, the applicant would get a communication on why his or her application stood rejected.

Since the DMK government took over, about 8.34 lakh new family cards had been distributed. This was possible because of a decentralised system of issuing cards at the district level, he said, replying to the debate on the demands for grants for his department. Till recently, all applications were being centrally processed in Chennai.

To a suggestion that the distribution of cards should be decentralised even further and done from the taluk level, he said that some of the work could be delegated to the taluk level since about 205 taluk-level offices hadbeen computerised. To begin with, changing of names and addresses in family cards would be handled at the taluk level, he added.

After complaints cells for consumers were set up, 1,230 complaints were received from across the State. Action had been taken in 739 cases and investigations were on in 491 cases. People can call the numbers listed for their district and lodge their complaints. The number for south Chennai is 28551026 and for north Chennai it is 28551028. For Coimbatore it is 2230569 and for Madurai it is 2532501. Complainants in Tiruchi can call 2418995. Besides this, the department would soon provide a toll-free number and outsource certain services so that there was no complaint of a number being unreachable, he said.

Mr. Velu said that 99,161 bogus family cards had been identified and eliminated from the public distribution system since last April. The government wanted to take up a “massive one-time cleaning operation to remove bogus cards completely.” He added: “After this exercise, the ration card database will be updated and thereafter maintained online, incorporating changes such as deletions, additions, address transfers, etc., regularly using the Web-based workflow software being developed by ELCOT.”

There are 1.97 crore family cards in the State. About 1.86 crore card holders draw the Rs.2 a kg rice. The food subsidy, the amount spent to give rice and a few other essential commodities at subsidised rates to the poor, stood at Rs.1,950 crore in 2007-08, the same as in 2006-07. This was Rs.1,200 crore in 2005-06 and Rs.1,035 crore in 2004-05.

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