4,706 ineligible BPL ration cards found in DK

The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has found 4,706 ration cards ineligible in the district, said joint director Dr B T Manjunathan.

“The Department started a massive drive to check the eligibility of priority household or below poverty line (BPL) ration cards. The ineligible cards have all been converted to APL,” he added.

The joint director spoke at a phone-in programme organised by Prajavani at the DH-PV editorial office at Balmatta on Wednesday.

Priority cards

“The district has 2.7 lakh priority (BPL) households and 1.55 lakh non-priority (APL) households. The drive to check ineligible ration cards was carried out from August and will be continued,” said Manjunathan.

“Those who have more than Rs 1.2 lakh income a month, own four-wheelers and more than 2.5 hectares of irrigated land are ineligible to hold priority household ration cards,” he clarified, and added, “All the ineligible BPL cards have been cancelled and the families have been issued APL cards.”

Speaking further, he said, “Of the 4,706 ineligible cardholders, 2,156 were found owning four-wheelers. Five cardholders owned excess land than the criteria, while 56 persons owned houses bigger than 1,000 sq ft and 13 persons were government employees.”

Of the 13 government employees, seven were from Bantwal, three from Puttur, and one each from Mangaluru Urban, Belthangady and Sullia taluks.

The department officials have also collected fine if the BPL card holders refused to voluntarily surrender their cards, said the joint director.

Info from RTO

“Officials have found people who own high-end cars possessing BPL ration cards. They have also been searching the data available in RTOs using the Aadhaar numbers of BPL ration cardholders to find if the cardholders have registered private cars in their names,” said the joint director.

“We have details of the vehicles registered in the district. Even the details of the vehicles registered outside the district are available. Through the Aadhaar numbers, we can identify the owners of the vehicles. The BPL cards of all those who own four-wheelers will be cancelled,” Manjunathan said.

“The public should alert the department through an online mechanism. The identity of such informers will be kept confidential through an automated mechanism of the department. While the information gets passed on to officials concerned, the identity of the informer will not be revealed by the automated system,” the joint director promised.

“Also, if the people tip-off the officials on the ineligible persons possessing BPL cards, the persons who inform the officials will be given a reward of Rs 400,” he said and added, “People can complain about ineligible BPL cards by visiting www.ahara.kar.nic.in

No kerosene

As the citizens are provided free LPG under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Anila Bhagya Yojana and other schemes, the government has stopped the supply of kerosene in Dakshina Kannada through the public distribution system,” said Manjunathan.“Even the supply of tur dal is stopped for the time being,” he said.