Karnataka - Mysore

More than 72 lakh BPL families get ration cards

—PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Airing their problems: Residents of Gandhinagar complain about the problems of the public distribution system to Shivaram, Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies, in Mysore on Saturday.

MYSORE: Of the 80 lakh below the poverty line (BPL) families in the State, ration cards have been issued to 72.73 lakh families. The Government has directed the officials to issue cards to the remaining 7.27 lakh families, and they should be getting them soon, said Shivaram, Commissioner for Food and Civil Supplies.

Speaking to presspersons here on Saturday, he said that so far, the department had received 41 lakh applications seeking BPL cards and the process of identifying real beneficiaries was on. “The process of identifying those who come below the poverty line is a continuous process and it is the intention of the Government to reach BPL benefits to genuine beneficiaries,” he said.

The department had asked the Deputy Commissioners of all the districts to conduct “BPL cards week” to issue cards to genuine beneficiaries among the applicants, he said.

When asked about the problems being faced by the poor because of alleged irregularity in the supply of kerosene oil, Mr. Shivaram said that the department had taken enough measures for the effective distribution of kerosene stock received from the Centre. “Yes, there are complaints of misuse of stocks supplied to shops and officials are trying their best to contain that,” he said.

Control rooms had been set up in all the district headquarters, including in Bangalore city. All BPL card holders are eligible to get seven litres of kerosene.

Failure on the part of the shop owner in supplying the required quantity would force the authorities to initiate severe action against him, including cancellation of licence.

He requested the BPL families to register their complaints at the control room if they faced any problem from Fair Price Shop owners.

To a query on the Government’s decision to issue “smart cards” to BPL families to assure specified quantity of food grains to them, he said that a final decision had not been taken so far.

Deputy Commissioner P. Manivannan, who was present on the occasion, said that the district administration had taken all steps to streamline the public distribution system.

Photographs of over 250 shops, along with its owners in the district, had been taken for the records and they had been directed to display their name boards as specified by the department. They had also been asked to display quantity of the supply received every day and list of BPL families that come under their jurisdiction, by July 15. Failure on the part of shop owners to comply with the direction would be dealt with seriously, he said.

Four teams of officials of the Department of Food and Civil Supplies, led by Commissioner Shivaram, conducted raids on a few fair price shops in Gandhinagar, N.R. Mohalla, Ashok Puram and T.K. Layout on Saturday, owing to mounting complaints from the public on improper distribution of foodgrains and cheating in weights and measures.

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