Udupi: Surge in Applicants for Ration Card Leads to Chaos
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (VM)
Udupi, Oct 27: A quarrel erupted among ration card officials and applicants of new ration cards and those who came for correction of names at deputy commissioner’s old office in Bannanje here on Thursday October 26.
As it was government holiday for two successive days, large number of people gathered in front of the office with their applications on Thursday, which led to chaos.
The officials issued serial numbers (tokens) to the applicants on small pieces of paper without any seal which led to the problem. In addition, applicants complained that many people broke the queue and joined in between, leading to more chaos.
Sources said that more than 500 applicants were present on the day.
Arguments arose between the officials and the frustrated applicants. The situation was brought under control only after police intervention.
Tahsildar Abhijin also visited the spot and carried out investigation.
An applicant said that this is the only ration card center for Udupi and it lacks facilities. There is no public information center, he said.
Addressing the media, the tahsildar said that it is possible to issue tokens for only 150 to 180 people in a day. As it was a public holiday for two days, more than 500 applicants had been to the office, which was the main cause for the problem.
He said that the office has only three computers, each of which can handle 60 applicants a day. Sometimes due to server problem in Bangalore, applicants need to wait for a long time, he added.
As per the recent update by the Karnataka food and civil supply and consumer affairs department, the last date for ration card applications (submission of photo and biometric) is extended to October 31.
Hence people who have not submitted their photo and biometric data should submit it to the respective offices by October 31, stated a press release.
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