Ration card registration hit by technical glitches

Problems associated with information technology solutions, which have affected the renewal of ration cards in the district, was discussed, during a meeting of the department of Food and Civil Supplies, here on Monday.

Officials who participated in the meeting informed Revenue and District in-charge minister, V Sreenivas Prasad that recurring network errors and delay in data processing had caused several problems. Speaking at the meeting, executive officer of Nanjangud taluk said that grama panchayats could only upload 25 details of ration card holders in a particular village during the day.

“However, the process has been hampered by slow internet connections, busy servers and power outage. Owing to these issues, GP officials had decided to upload the data after 10 pm. Ration cards of such people, whose details were uploaded after 10 pm have now been suspended,” he said.

Deputy Director of the department, K Rameshwarappa noted a case in which GP officials who were uploading the data after 10 pm were assaulted in Belawadi village, as villagers suspected of wrong-doing in the office.

The case of BPL card holders, whose cards have been suspended for not submitting Revenue Register (RR) numbers, related to electricity connections was also highlighted at the meeting. Deputy Commissioner, C Shikha, said that ration cards were mapped using RR numbers of Escoms four years ago, prior to the SMS registration procedure introduced recently.

“While RR numbers are not mandatory for SMS registration procedure, owing to some technical errors, cards of families who had not mapped their RR numbers in the past have been suspended. Several BPL families in parts of Nanjangud and H D Kote taluk, who do not have an electricity connection have been affected,” she said.

Department officials also noted that some cards of people, who had sent SMS of EPIC and Aadhaar numbers, were also suspended. “While the card-holders have received a confirmation SMS, the details have not been updated in the website of the department,” an official said.

During the meeting, constraints faced by food inspectors of the department, owing to an increased work load associated with the SMS registration of ration cards was discussed.

Ration card suspension

As many as 97,336 ration cards will be suspended, by the end of October in the district. Suspension of ration cards began in the month of September, after the last date for SMS registration of the cards. Cards were suspended in phases, Shikha said.

A total of 29,615 cards were suspended in the month of September and 69,632 in October. Following this, the number of ration cards decreased from 7,33,898 in April 2014 to 6,36,562 in October.

Among the suspended cards, 65,565 were APL cards and 31,171 were BPL cards.
DH News Service