The city rationing office has extended the time limit for surrendering priority ration cards by those holding them wrongly till July 15. The Ernakulam district rationing authority had earlier said the ration cards under the Antyodaya-Anna Yojana (Yellow), BPL (Pink) and Subsidy (Blue) schemes, if held wrongly, should be surrendered by June 30.
The office had also warned of strong action against those who tried to take advantage of wrong category ration cards. An official of the department said around 5,500 people had so far surrendered wrong category ration cards. The cards will be shifted to the non-priority category.
Meanwhile, the Civil Supplies authorities said special squads would operate at the taluk level from July 16 to identify if anyone was wrongly holding priority category ration cards. Those who keep the cards wrongly will face stiff penalties, they added.
The rationing office has said that State and Union government employees, permanent employees of PSUs and cooperatives, service pensioners, income tax payees, teachers, and owners of four-wheelers, except those being used for taxi service, are among those who cannot keep priority category cards.
The office has also said that ration cards have to be linked to Aadhaar cards. Besides, the names of those who have passed away have to be removed from priority category ration cards. Applications for the purpose can be submitted through Akshaya centres.
There are a total of 8,80,795 cards in the district of which 38,075 are in the Yellow category. There are also 2.61 lakh priority household cards as well as 2.97 non-priority cards (non-subsidy) and 2.79 lakh non-priority subsidy category cards.
