Food cards to be in women’s name
Ladies to head families
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-10-11 05:51 GMT
Hyderabad: Following directions from the state government to accept applications for food security cards and pension cards from Friday, citizens thronged RDO and MRO offices all over the state to submit applications.
People were asked to submit applications on plain paper giving details of their family, residence, Aadhaar card, mobile phone number etc.
For the first time, food security cards, which are replacing ration cards, will be issued in the name of women. The earlier practice was to accord “head of family” status to men and ration cards were issued in their names; but for the new food security cards, women will replace men as heads of families.
The government has fixed October 15 as deadline to submit applications. As people were asked to submit applications on plain paper, there was no need to stand in serpentine queues for hours to obtain application forms, fill-in the details and then submit them.
However, with only five days to go for the deadline and two holidays in between on account of second Saturday and Sunday, people were anxious to submit their applications. With only three working days left, people urged the government to extend the deadline till October-end.
In Hyderabad alone, over 8 lakh applicants are expected to apply for food security cards and the few revenue offices are not in a position to cater to them.
The principal secretary of social welfare department, Mr J. Raymond Peter, said special counters for submitting applications were set up in Hyderabad and Secunderabad revenue offices.
“People can simply write their details on a white paper and submit them at these counters. They must submit separate applications for food security cards and pensions,” he added.