The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has decided to provide home delivery of ration to 1.4 lakh elderly people across the State.

Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs K. Gopalaiah on Tuesday said that in an attempt to make things easy for the elderly, particularly those living alone, the department will ensure delivery of household ration at their doorsteps.

Currently, each family having five members is eligible for 35 kg of rice a month.

Mr. Gopalaiah reviewed the programmes of the department and said food inspectors in the city limits and revenue inspectors in rural areas would be given the responsibility of delivering ration from the PDS shops to homes. He said the process would commence in the next few days.

At the meeting with officials of 30 districts, it was learnt that a large number of aged people had not been collecting ration owing to their inability to go to the shops, Mr. Gopalaiah said.

To crackdown on fake or ineligible families holding BPL ration cards, it had been decided to link all ration cards to Aadhaar cards, he said. A database of cardholders would be generated through e-KYC and officials had been directed to complete the process in one or two months.

Mr. Gopalaiah said 63,922 cardholders had surrendered their cards while 43,000 families had applied for above poverty line cards. The department had collected a penalty of ₹94 lakh from families having BPL cards illegally.

Currently, there are 1.15 crore BPL cards, 20.28 lakh APL cards, and 10.94 lakh Antyodaya cards.

T/he Minister said ration cardholders can purchase their monthly quota from any PDS shop in the State.