Kozhikode: 38,000 petitions over ration priority list

KOZHIKODE: Around 38,000 petitions have been received in the district in connection with the ration priority list till Friday. They include those received by four taluk civil supply offices and grama panchayats.

Authorities rue rumours doing the rounds like non-inclusion in the priority list would attract cancellation of ration items.

“The petitions are not for corrections alone. They come under claims and objections. The data for priority list was collected in 2015. Within a year, people would have built a 1,000-sq ft house, bought a car or entered in govt service. That types of claims could be made to exclude from the list besides complaints of non-inclusion,” said district supply officer A. Raveendran.

Only a tiny fraction of the petitions demand exclusion from the list. Similarly, officials say that persons objecting the inclusion of others in the list are also negligible.

There are umpteen instances of non-deserving cases cropped up on the list and deserving ones omitted. As many as 80 people belonging to scheduled caste at the Karimbil Colony of Thachamkunnu near Payyoli are out.

Many living in deprived conditions got omitted whereas government officials, people with large tracts of land, vehicles, etc. had found a place. There are four types of segregation according to the National Food Security Act, priority, non-priority, state priority and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).

“It is not that all having BPL ration cards would be included on the priority list. The BPL list of 2009 has vast discrepancies, and the priority lists were introduced to rectify those mistakes,” a civil supplies officer said.

Those ineligible for priority list could find a place on the state priority list if they are suffering from chronic illness identified by the government. Such people would be entitled to subsidised treatment at government hospitals. AAY is for the poorest of the poor. The public can submit the petitions to the grama panchayat secretary concerned and at the taluk civil supplies offices up to November 5.