Ration cards outnumber families

BANGALORE:Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shobha Karandlaje said the department has issued over 1.67 crore ration cards, and 90 per cent of them to below poverty line (BPL) families. However, the census figures show that there are only 1.32 crore families in the state, whose population was 6.11 crore.Blaming the private agency which was entrusted to issue cards back in 2006 for the presence of abnormal number of cards in use, Shobha said, “Lakhs of families are still deprived of subsidised food grains for want of ration cards.”Considering the abnormally high number of cards, it was decided to deploy NIC to prepare an accurate database of BPL families in the state and eliminate bogus and ineligible ration cards.“Our goal is to ensure that families deprived of subsidised food grains should be provided with ration cards at the earliest. In the past, vested interests with ulterior intentions had obtained ration cards in large numbers not only depriving the families entitled to them but also causing financial loss upon the state government,” she said.