Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 1: Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards which the government introduced to help the poor, are being misused by people who have means to feed their families. As per the information put together by the food and civil supplies department, Karnataka has a total of about ten lac BPL cards which are issued in the names of rich families on the basis of false certificates provided by them.

The officials have warned those ineligible BPL ration cards who unjustifiably hold them to voluntarily return the cards to the government. The department has set March 31 this year as the deadline for this exercise. If the cards are not returned, the officials will conduct operations and register criminal cases against those who are found to have committed irregularities.

People drawing grants from the government, public sector units, boards, corporations, voluntary organization officials, government employees, families which pay income tax, service tax, VAT, professional tax etc, families having more than three acres of dry and wet land, families having over a thousand square feet houses in urban areas, those having four wheelers, and people having annual income of over Rs 1.2 lac have acquired the BPL cards, the department as found.

There are 7,62,628 Antyodaya, 20,07,601 APL and 1,18,87,236 BPL cards. These cards together cover 4,98,09,351 members. The government issues five kg rice per member, and two kg wheat. Families holding Antyodaya cards get 35 kg rice free of cost while APL card holders get 10 kg rice per member at Rs 15 per kg.

During the last three years, 12,47,151 ration cards were cancelled by the department after finding that these were obtained on the basis of fake records. Before that after the ration cards were linked with Aadhar, about 50 lac fake cards had been found invalid. Under the National Food Safety Act and Supreme Court order, everyone named in the ration cards have to get their Aadhar verified (e-KYC). Forty percent of work is done in the state but now is suspended on account of coronavirus. Once this process is over, more fake cards will be identified and cancelled.

The department has announced reward scheme under which people providing information about fake cards get Rs 400 per card as reward. The people who identify smuggling or black market sale of ration items get 5 percent of the total value of the stock after the case is proved.

Commissioner in the department of food, Dr Shamla Iqbal, says that once E-KYC is completed, a large number of fake ration cards will be detected and financial burden on the government will become less.