HYDERABAD: The Civil Supplies department has recently found out that 50 percent of white ration cards for the poorest of the poor have been issued to Above Poverty Line or noneligible families.
Surprised at this startling revelation, the department has decided to find out the noneligible families and take action against the illegal card holders.
The department has found that around 1.12 crore or 50 per cent out of the 2.24 crore white ration cards for BPL families have been issued to noneligible families. APL families have been issued 2.76 crore pink ration cards in the state.
The white cards are issued to a family which has below `60,000 annual income in rural area and `75,000 in urban areas. "The noneligible people managed to get white cards at their local level or during Rachabanda meetings by using their political links," said KRBHN Chakravarthi, director, Civil Supplies department. He added that many APL families and sand contractors in Vijayawada and Nizamabad had managed to get white cards.
"We recently conducted a meeting with D Sridhar Babu, minister for Civil Supplies and officials of Legal Metrology and Consumer Affairs and have decided to ask all noneligible families to return the white cards before Januaryend or face legal action."
Chakravarthi said all the 42,490 fair price shops dealers have been asked to find out APL white card holders and serve them notice to change them into pink cards.