7,580 illegal BPL ration cards cancelled in Haveri

Haveri: The food and civil supplies department has cancelled as many as 7,580 BPL ration cards in Haveri district. The people who had them were not eligible for BPL ration cards, but were using the cards by providing wrong information to the department, for a long time. Some government officials and employees also had BPL ration cards in the district.
The department has cancelled 2,679 BPL cards of district taluk level officials and government employees, 1,052 cards from those who are paying income tax, 323 cards from those who have an annual income of Rs 1.2 lakh or more, and 3,526 cards from those have more than three hectors of agricultural land in the district. “We have recovered Rs 18 lakh in fines from 422 government and government-aided employees, who were using BPL cards illegally. Most of them are teachers. We have found these irregularities, after checking their annual income through their Aadhaar cards, which were linked to ration cards,” said an official.
He said that 50% of employees have deposited the fine amount already, and that they need to recover the remaining 50% from government employees, that will amount to almost Rs 20 lakh. “Some of the government employees have not yet replied to our notices. Action will be initiated soon against the government employees who have obtained illegal BPL ration cards,” the official stated.