Civil Supplies Department grapples with errors in new ration cards

KOCHI: Raghunathan, a 42-year-old Ernakulam native, was not exactly amused to notice his ‘name’ in the ration card. It appeared as Raghurajan. Worse, his daughter’s age was mentioned as 51,  instead of 15, when the card reached him. His is not an isolated case, there being thousands of people across the state battling to get errors rectified in ration cards.

From July onwards, over 75,000 applications - including new applications, ownership change, corrections and renewal - were registered by the Civil Supplies Department in Ernakulam district alone. Errors in the ration cards issued by the Civil Supplies Department is turning out to be quite the usual drill for the common people.

“Whenever we apply for ration cards, we expect errors in them. Either name, gender, address, or age will have mistakes. My friend Harish’s ration card had his name in the column of the wife’s name. Even if we give them the correct details, errors occur,” said Praveen S, a city resident.

Plenty of complaints have been raised against mistakes in the new ration cards printed by the Kerala Government’s Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) based on the information provided in the application forms by ration card owners.

Submitting applications for new ration cards or corrections and related work at the City Rationing Office is proving to be a tough ask. To get errors rectified, people have to apply at the Taluk Supply Office after waiting in long queues.

“Sometimes, there won’t be any officer in the relevant section or there will be long queues before the office. The whole one day will be lost in such situations. If we are lucky enough, we will get the error rectified,” said Geetha Nair, a city resident.

Easing the way ahead

To avoid long queues at the supply offices, the Civil Supplies Department will soon update the online platform where the general public can register their complaints. “The current online platform will be updated making it more convenient.

People can avoid long queues and it will be much easier for the department too as they will be registering through Akshaya Centres.

People will only have to visit the Supply Office to collect their ration cards freed of errors,” said Ernakulam District Supply Officer Benny Joseph. He also said the updated online software has been launched for trial in Thiruvananthapuram and, so far, no error has been reported with the system. Under the circumstances, it will be launched across the state within a week.