Family ration cards by Dec

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 2 DEC: The state chief secretary Mr AM Chakraborty has asked all district magistrates that the programme of issuing family ration cards and the cancellation of old cards in their preliminary target of 170 blocks must be completed by December 2009.

The copy of this order (memo no 419(21)/ CS/2009 on 11 Nov, 2009) has been forwarded to the principal secretary, food and supplies department, principal secretary, panchayat and rural development (P&RD), principal secretary, municipal affairs (MA) and all district magistrates.

The order was issued in order to improve the infrastructure and system of delivery of ration commodities to the targetted beneficiaries through the public distribution system.

It was also stated that the state government has decided to launch a programme of issuing new family ration cards on the basis of the updated list of household survey prepared by panchayats and rural development and municipal affairs departments.

According to the order, light violet coloured APL (above poverty line) family ration cards, gray coloured BPL (below poverty line) family ration cards and orange coloured AAY (Annapurna and Antadaya Yojona) family cards will be issued to the heads of the families. The cards will be issued as per lists duly authenticated by the P&RD and MA departments.

District magistrates will issue notice specifying the details of the programme for each block. The notice will clearly indicate the time frame within which distribution of new cards and simultaneous cancellation of old cards will be completed in each block clearly stating that after the end of the specified period the old cards will lose its validity. The district magistrates have been asked to give adequate publicity of the programme.

The order also pointed out that at the time of writing the new cards, control registers should be maintained. On the body of the new cards the serial no of the family as it appears in the household survey list (prepared by the P&RD and MA) shall be noted along with the serial numbers of the new ration cards. In the control registers serial no of the voter identity cards should also be noted.

The district magistrate in Malda, Mr Sridhar Ghosh said: “We have completed the APL, BPL and AAY list for 13 blocks out of 15 in this district. The list of two blocks (Kaliachak blocks I and III) is waiting for government's approval”.

However, the P&RD department had objected to allow the BPL lists of two blocks (Kaliachak blocks I and III) because more than 60 per cent of the residing families have been listed as BPL which is abnormally higher than any other blocks and average the rate of BPL in the state.

“We have planned to publish the final list of each block from 2 December to begin distribution of family cards here”, the district magistrate Mr Sridhar Ghosh said.