The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Don’t come under pressure in weeding out bogus family cards, says Minister

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Don’t come under pressure in weeding out bogus family cards, says Minister

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

field review: The Food and Cooperation Minister E.V. Velu addressing a review meeting in Coimbatore on Sunday.

COIMBATORE: Food Minister E.V. Velu on Sunday asked enumerators not to come under any pressure in weeding out bogus family cards. They should bring to the notice of their superiors attempts made by people to get bogus cards. Only then, could action be taken to put an end to this problem.

The Minister said this at a meeting here to review door-to-door verification of family cards being carried out in Coimbatore and Tiruchi. The aim was to rid these districts of bogus cards and make them models for the rest of the State to emulate.

A similar exercise was on for Anna Nagar and Chepauk zones in Chennai. The government had allocated Rs.13.05 crore for the verification process and to ensure that only those eligible received family cards.

The Minister went on a two-day field review here on Saturday and Sunday. Secretary of Co-operatives K. Shanmugham, Commissioner of Civil Supplies K. Rajaraman and District Collector V. Palanikumar accompanied him.

During the door-to-door review, the Minister spoke to cardholders and cross-checked their family details and other particulars in the cards with the register the enumerators had.

Mr. Velu also asked the cardholders about the types and quantity of essential items they received from ration shops. He asked them to inform officials of instances of shop staff demanding excess money.

Lapses

Some lapses were found during the review by the Minister. When the address on one of the family cards was verified, it led him and the officials to an open site. Another case was that of three cards issued on one address. But none of the mentioned families were found in the house. The Minister ordered 100 per cent re-verification in Kinathukadavu Town Panchayat owing to anomalies in the allocation of cards.

Advice to VAOs

Mr. Velu said Village Administrative Officers should not process application forms based only on details provided by their assistants. He wanted supervisory officers to cross-check details collected by the enumerators.

The district administration said 3,058 staff members from the revenue, education and Integrated Child Development Scheme wings were verifying 14.36 lakh cards across the district.

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