The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : White ration cards to 16 lakh ‘Rachabanda' applicants

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Thursday, May 26, 2011
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

White ration cards to 16 lakh ‘Rachabanda' applicants

Special Correspondent

The move to result in an additional burden of Rs.515 crore on the exchequer
Of 32.5 lakh new applications, 16.2 lakh found eligible after verification

HYDERABAD: The government in principle decided to sanction over 16 lakh new white ration cards to people who submitted applications during the Rachabanda programme. This would result in an additional burden of Rs.515 crore.

Of 32.5 lakh new applications received, 16.2 lakh fresh applicants were found eligible after verification. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy reviewed the follow up action on applications received during Rachabanda, conducted three months ago, with senior ministers here on Wednesday. He directed the officials that that verification process for benefits like ration cards, pensions, housing should be completed by June-end.

Transport Minister Botcha Satyanarayana later told reporters that it was earlier decided to link ration supplies of new white card holders to Aadhaar cards. However, as Aadhaar cards would be issued only by March, 2012, the Group of Ministers would meet in the next few days to decide about the modalities for sanctioning ration till then.

Pension benefit

On pension benefit, he said of 12.25 lakh applications received during Rachabanda, 5.57 lakh were verified so far and 3.49 lakh applications were found eligible with a requirement of Rs.85 crore.

Similarly under housing, of 20 lakh applications, 11.55 lakh applications were verified and 7.18 applicants were found eligible. About six lakh houses a year would be completed with the budget of Rs.2,300 crore.

The Chief Minister gave about 200 assurances for developing community assets like drinking water facility, roads, school buildings etc., during the programme requiring an amount of Rs.1,000 crore to Rs.1,200 crore. The benefits would be handed over to applicants in a special programme during next month.

Three assurances

He also gave three major assurances worth Rs.5,146 crore - allocation of gas for Nedunoor gas based power plant (Rs.3,402 crore), drinking water supply scheme to Tirupati and Chittoor and villages in between from Kandaleru reservoir (Rs.1,488 crore) and addressing drinking water scarcity in all the municipalities of Chittoor district.

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