Karnataka - Belgaum   

Govt. soon to reintroduce coupon system for kerosene

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, JAN. 21. The Government has decided to reintroduce the coupon system for distribution of kerosene through fair price shops soon, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, H.S. Mahadev Prasad, has said.

Talking to presspersons here on Wednesday, he said the coupon system, which was implemented earlier, was withheld because of certain problems. One of the reasons was that the Government was not getting proper account of the quantity of kerosene supplied by the dealer for distribution through fair price shops.

However, this was being sorted out. The cardholders would get eight litres of kerosene every month. He did not announce when the coupon system would be reintroduced.

Sugar

The Minister announced that steps had been taken to make available sugar in fair price shops. As much as 86,000 tonnes of sugar would be distributed and cardholders would get three kilograms of sugar at Rs. 13.60 a kilogram from this month. He said the price of sugar had shot up because of imports but did not elaborate.

Survey

Mr. Mahadev Prasad, who held a meeting with deputy commissioners, chief executive officers of zilla panchayats and senior officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department from seven districts in Belgaum Division, asked the officials to complete the "re-survey" for identification of below poverty line families by the end of March this year.

He said teams were being formed to take up a fresh survey to identify such families in every village and town for distribution of yellow cards. The teams would take up publicity campaigns before visiting any village.

The fresh survey was being taken up in the light of the fact that lakhs of deserving families had been left out and ineligible families had managed to get the cards.

There were more than 1.02 crore below poverty line families and each one of them would get the card, he said.

He also directed the officials to identify the ineligible families and cancel their yellow cards. The Government had defined the eligibility criteria for distribution of yellow cards.

To questions, he said he would try to instil discipline among officials of the department and make them accountable for any lapse or irregularity.

However, there were certain problems in the system, which was being improved. One of the steps in this direction was computerisation which would help monitor the department work, he added.

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