Online system for ration cards a hit

The online system of applying for APL (Above Poverty Line ) ration cards has been a big hit with about 1.18 lakh people submitting applications in the last six days.

The State Food and Civil Supplies department has been receiving an average of 20,000 applications seeking ration cards every day on its website - http://ahara.kar.nic.in - and a large number of applications are from Bangalore Urban district. The department introduced the online system on November 19.

According to official sources, the department had stopped issuing APL ration cards about one and a half years ago, after finding loopholes in the existing system. It had outsourced the task of issuing ration cards with holograms and bio-metric details to a private company. The company allegedly bungled, resulting in a large number of bogus cards.

Hence, the department recently conducted a drive to identify bogus cards by collecting Revenue Register (RR) numbers issued by the electricity supply companies from all households. It has been claiming that about 30 lakh bogus ration cards have been identified following the drive and steps are being taken to weed them out.

Official sources said the department had not finalised the new format of ration cards that will be issued under the online system. However, it has decided to do away with collecting affidavits, declaring that they do not possess a ration card, from the people.

The department is of the view that there is no use collecting the affidavits as the government will never take any legal action for furnishing wrong information. Instead, the plan is to conduct a thorough verification before issuing the cards. It also has a plan to incorporate RR numbers on the new ration cards, sources said.

Inspection

Food and Civil Supplies Department Secretary B A Harish Gowda said the local officials had started conducting inspections to verify the authenticity of the information furnished in the applications. "SMS messages and emails are being sent to the applicants about the inspection. Similarly, the department will inform the applicants about the progress on their applications," he said.

There is awareness among the urban people that they should have ration cards and hence, a large number of them are applying. Moreover, the online system is convenient for the urban people as they do not have to run from pillar to post, he pointed out.