1.37 lakh ration cards gathering dust at Karnal office since Jan ’18

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, August 11

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Around 1.37 lakh ration cards have been gathering dust at the office of the District Food and Supplies Controller here for a year and a half even as beneficiaries await these eagerly.

A total of 1.87 lakh ration cards of various categories  were supplied by a Delhi-based publisher to the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) office on the Meerut road in January 2018, but only around 50,000 of these were distributed.

Several residents have approached the authorities and depot holders to get their ration cards, but to no avail. Some said they were told by the officials to “apply online”. “I approached the officials many times, but nobody paid heed,” said Narinder Kumar, a resident.

Another resident, Amit Kumar, alleged it was gross negligence on the part of the food and supplies department as lakhs had been spent on publishing the ration cards. “The cards should have been distributed as soon as these were received.

Action must be initiated for this carelessness,” he said.

Prior to the new below poverty line survey, there were around 4.47 lakh ration cards holders in Karnal district. The beneficiaries have been divided into five categories—above poverty line (APL), other priority households (OPH), state below poverty line (SBPL), central below poverty line (CBPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY). There are 2.5 lakh APL (or green colour) card holders in the district, 26,279 of SBPL, 30,722 CBPL (both yellow), 1.20 lakh OPH (khaki) and 12,603 of AAY (pink). 

Kushal Pal Bura, DFSC, admitted that the ration cards were lying in the office. “I am not to be blamed as I joined here recently. Still, I have directed the officials to distribute all the cards by August-end,” he said.