Coimbatore: The public distribution system officials in the district have started door-to-door verification to identify single member ration cards that were being misused to procure essential commodities from ration shops. So far, 1,974 cardholders were found to be misusing their ration cards.
The verification follows a direction at a state-level meet where the district supply officers were asked to conduct door-to-door checking to ensure that only those individuals who have separate kitchen facility have single member ration cards. They were also directed to submit a report to the civil supplies and consumer protection department in Chennai.
There are about 1.4 lakh single member ration cards in the district. “Of the verified 13,647 cardholders, a total of 1,974 i.e., about 14% of cards were found to be misused,” a Tamil Nadu PDS official said.
There were many instances where members from the same family, who use the same kitchen, had applied for several ration cards claiming that they live alone. They use the cards to procure essential commodities especially rice and dhal items at subsidy rate.
“If a family has more than one card, we have decided to put all their names in one card,” the official said, adding that the government would save thousands of kilograms of essential commodities by finding the misuses.
The door-to-door verification has been taking place at a faster pace and the officials are planning to complete it at the earliest.
Refusing to accept that the government would have large-scale benefit scale by saving kilograms of essential commodities, G Rajendren of Tamil Nadu Ration Shop Employees Association said there would neither be a huge loss nor a profit for the government. "Evidently, the number of cardholders would have been reduced, but there would not be any other benefit," he said.
