The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Govt. promises good deal for cardholders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 12, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Govt. promises good deal for cardholders

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Government will be announcing a better deal for ration cardholders in the State on Independence Day, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, H.S. Mahadeva Prasad, told the Legislative Council on Monday. He said the new policy to improve the quality of service provided to ration cardholders will be announced this year.

Replying to a debate on grants for the Department of Food and Civil Supplies, the Minister said a large number of fair price depots will be opened across the State to meet the demands of cardholders. He told V.S. Ugrappa (Congress) that it has been decided to open a depot for every 400 cards and it will have a range of one km.

Elaborate arrangements will be made to transport foodgrains to the fair price depots by the 20th of every month and they will be instructed to complete distribution by the end of the month. The depots will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. during those 10 days so that the villagers will be able be able to buy foodgrains without any problem. Instead of distributing foodgrains in terms of a quota for each member in a family, he said a unit system will be introduced to avoid wastage and misuse.

Mr. Prasad said that as part of e-governance, kiosks will be installed in each village panchayat where bar-coded coupons will be issued to the cardholders.

The Minister said that 3.80 lakh tonnes of maize had been purchased from the Food Corporation of India at a cost of Rs. 250 crores under the minimum support price programme for distribution in the north Karnataka region. Similarly, ragi will be distributed in 13 southern districts.

The Minister told M.P. Nadagouda (Janata Dal-United) that the Government is amending the PDS Control Order for initiating action against those who misuse kerosene distributed under the PDS. He told the member that not a single case of bogus ration card was detected during the re-survey.

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Karnataka