Issue ration cards only to BPL families, urges Forum for Good Governance
Hyderabad: The Forum for Good Governance has asked civil supplies minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to weed out around two crore people, who have been illegally enjoying public distribution system (PDS) benefits.
Forum president M. Padmanabha Reddy welcomed the government move to initiate a consultation process to formulate eligibility criteria and work out modalities for issuing new ration cards. At present close to 90 lakh ration cards covering a population of 2.84 crore out of the four crore population in the state, are getting benefits under PDS.
Many survey reports have found that close to 20 per cent of people in the state belong to BPL families. If the BPL criteria are applied only 80 lakh people require free rice as against the present 2.84 crore people. An additional two crore people are drawing six kg free rice, which in financial terms comes to `600 crore, he said.
The forum urged the government to conduct a house to house survey to weed out the bogus ration cards in the State. It charged that the BRS government had issued ration cards to almost 75 per cent of the state’s population. The present government should stop this unethical practice and restrict the issue of ration cards only to BPL families, Reddy said.