Date:17/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/17/stories/2008071752520300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Over 5,000 ration cards cancelled in Ambur

Staff Reporter

AMBUR: Officials of the Cooperative Marketing Society have cancelled a total of 5,450 ration cards during a verfication drive conducted in Ambur to check the genuineness of card-holders. Enquiries with the officials revealed that there were a total of 27 ration shops spread across Ambur. Seven shops belonged to the Cooperative Marketing Society, 18 shops belonged to the Karpagam Cooperative Marketing Society and one shop each belonged to Amudam and TACP.

The drive was conducted on instruction from the Collectorate office. The main aim was to identify and eliminate duplicate ration cards.

E. Suresh Babu, president, Ambur Town Congress Committee, said that 100 to 200 cards attached to each of the 27 ration shops were cancelled . Most of the cancelled cards belonged to daily wage labourers residing at Ambur. They were heads of the families and could not come in person to get the validity seal on the day verification.

One of the reasons was that no one knew of such a verification being conducted in Ambur.

Moreover, the labourers could not afford to lose a day’s wage, he added.