Wednesday, July 7, 2010

247 - PDS drain: Madhya Pradesh admits 11 lakh fake ration cards

PDS drain: Madhya Pradesh admits 11 lakh fake ration cards
Milind Monday June 7th 2010


At a time when the actual count of BPL families has become important, ahead of the proposed Food Security Act, the Madhya Pradesh government on Sunday admitted that 11.28 lakh fake ration cards bled the public distribution system in the state.


A drive launched between October and December last year to unearth bogus cards yielded as many as 8.75 lakh BPL cards and 2.52 lakh Antyodaya cards. When added, the number comes to around 16 per cent of the total cardholders in the state that existed before the drive began.


The drive made it compulsory for beneficiaries to give a declaration along with their photographs. It was made clear that beneficiaries will become eligible for subsidised food grains only if the information they provided was found to be correct.


A government spokesman said that before October 2009, the state had 52,83,323 BPL cardholders and 15,82,635 Antyodaya cardholders. As many as 11.28 lakh cardholders did not give any declaration. The government stated that action against these cardholders and those who helped them get them was going on, with FIRs being filed in some cases.


Existence of so many fake BPL and Antyodaya cards meant that the government had to spend a lot on buying food grains for APL cardholders.


According the government statement, eligible persons could still apply for new cards by giving declarations. It also warned that drive against fake cards would continue.


The government has announced that it would start food coupon scheme on a pilot basis in five districts from July 1, hoping that once the scheme is introduced in the entire state the number of ineligible persons would go down.