Govt cracks whip against fake ration cards in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Civil Supplies Department would focus on eradicating fake and bogus ration cards in the year 2018. Officials said an exercise to identify bogus cards will be launched next February and from April no new cards will be issued except in case of emergencies. The ration cards will be replaced by the Food Security Cards.

According to sources, across the State, there are about 1.20 crore beneficiaries and many were identified as fake. Officials said strict guidelines would be put in place to issue ration cards to



check bogus cards. Civil Supplies Commissioner C V Anand on Friday said, “to keep a check on bogus cards, we are planning to introduce a software which will help weed out such cards.”

Out of the total beneficiaries in the State, about 30 per cent do not collect rice and other items from ration dealers, which are sold by the PDS rice selling gangs. The department procures about 1.75 tonnes of rice every month. Officials said that out of 2,200 odd mills, about 150 mills have been seized for various violations.