Jharkhand: Process to make ration card starts, 7 years’ wait ends

Ranchi, October 11: The seven-year wait for pending applications for making ration cards in the state will end. Now the process of making ration cards has been started. So far, over 8.45 lakh applications for making the card are pending with the Food-Supplies Department. These applicants include people from both BPL and APL categories. In the direction of providing ration to these beneficiaries, the department has taken initiative and asked the DSOs of all the districts to work towards making the card by examining the applicants. Prior to the process of creating a new card, the wrong ration card holders in every district have to be checked and their cards checked.

 

Their card can also be canceled once found wrong. The department said that in the districts where the cards will be canceled or who will surrender their cards, new ration cards will be replaced. At present, a card is made for the needy as indicated by the Gram Panchayat by organizing camps in many districts. The application given by the applicants will be examined from the SDO level to see if the applicants qualify for the ration card. Its report will be given to the department. Only then the process of making a ration card will begin.

The state government had already given information about the pending 8.45 lakh ration cardholders to the Center and requested that they should also get food items. Minister Saryu Rai had informed the Central Government that as per the National Food Security Act-2013, maximum ration could be given to more than 25 million people in the state based on the population of 2011. The rate of population growth in the current decade is near 16.40 percent. A total of 8,45,984 ration card applications are pending. He informed that if there will be a system to make cards according to the population, then the eligible beneficiaries can get the card.