Minister P Thilothaman admits ration card errors

Thiruvananthapuram: Food and Civil Supplies Minister P Thilothaman admitted that there were mistakes in the preparation of the priority list and ration cards and said that steps were being taken to correct the mistakes. Mr Thilothaman, while replying to an adjournment motion moved by Anoop Jacob in the assembly on Fiday, said that that around six lakh complaints had been received about the anomalies in the ration cards.

Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala referred to the inclusion of names of the state Forest Minister K Raju and MLA M Noushad in the list. Mr Raju said he had surrendered the ration card to officials in view of the ‘mistake’.  Mr Thilothaman said that the UDF, while in power, had not done anything to implement the food security act in the state even though they had more than three years to do so. “We should not forget the fact that the Parliament passed the NFS in 2013. UDF was in power until May 2016,” he said.

Mr Thilothaman said that it was true that some ineligible families had crept into the priority list. “Steps were already are on to remove them from the list and finalise the priority list without any mistakes,” Mr Thilothaman added. More than 43,000 state government employees have already surrendered their non-priority category ration cards voluntarily. “The number of people who surrender the priority cards will increase once the deadline ended on August 20”, the minister said.