Cards outnumber people

Hyderabad: The demand for white ration cards had shot up exponentially in united Andhra Pradesh when the then YSR government had implemented various welfare schemes for the benefit of the poor. The sole eligibility criterion to avail of these schemes was having a white ration card.

“When I examined the data submitted by officials, I was shocked to find that the ration cards exceed the population and households in Telangana. In any programme, there may be slight anomalies, which is understandable, but I have never seen such a huge anomaly as far as ration cards are concerned. The ration card numbers are a big joke. It is a great concern how these cards are being misused,” Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao remarked in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.

The data submitted by the officials revealed that as per 2011 census, there were 84,20,662 households in Telangana, while white ration card holders numbered 91,94,880. Besides this, there are an additional 15 lakh pink cards and another 1.07 lakh applications pending with officials. The numbers add up to nearly 22 lakh more ration cards than households in the Telangana.