Errors surface in new ration cards

Hubli, February, 8 : A majority of families residing in Ganeshpet area here and others who received fresh ration cards elsewhere in the city recently were in for a shock, thanks to the food and civil supplies department which has issued cards with factual and statistical errors.

While wrongly spelt names and incorrect age of the beneficiaries were common errors, there were some others which were serious in nature. For example, the age of a homemaker was mentioned as 13 in one such card. In the card issued to one Mohammed Isaac Katewad, unknown photographs were glued in place of his children.

Further, the total number of family members and the photographs in Katewad's card did not match. While it says that the total number of family members is five, there were six photographs.

A C Arasikeri of Dalit, Backward Minorities Welfare and Educational Society said poor people will be at loss due to the "gross negligence" of the food department. The rice that will be distributed to the families will be in proportion to the number of members in it. In this backdrop, some families may lose quantity of rice, owing to the errors. Many of them will not even be able to produce the card for other purposes.

Arasikeri attributed the anomalies to the short-cut employed by the officials in verifying ration card applications. He said the officials completed the formalities sitting in offices, and not by visiting the houses. He has urged the government to initiate strict action against officials responsible and rectify the mistakes immediately.