Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy urges eligible to apply for new rice cards

Eluru: State Housing, Information and Public Relations Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy has said that six types of services have been made available, including issuance of new rice cards, division of cards, change of address, addition of members, removal of existing ones and surrender of cards.

In a statement issued on Thursday, he said that an opportunity has been provided to register at the nearest village and ward secretariats seeking new ration cards. Similarly, an opportunity has been provided to correct the wrong Aadhaar number seeding in the rice card. He said that the government is preparing to issue new rice cards in the form of smart cards in June.

He said that the Election Commission of India had issued orders in March last year to stop the issuance of new cards in the context of the 2024 elections. As per the orders issued by the Supreme Court to make e-KYC registration mandatory, there was no opportunity to issue new cards.

However, he said that in the wake of the 94.4 per cent completion of the e-KYC process so far, the opportunity has been provided for the issuance of new rice cards. He said that there are a total of 1, 46, 21, 223 rice cards in the state and about 4, 24, 59, 028 people have registered their names through these cards.

He said that about 6,45,765 people have been exempted from e-KYC due to the clause that children under five years of age and those above 80 years of age do not need to do e-KYC. Similarly, 3.94 lakh people have already registered for changes and additions to their rice cards. He said that smart rice cards with QR codes will be issued in June this year.

He said that all the details of the family members will be on those cards and all the details will be visible when the card is scanned.

By linking this card to the database, the data will also be automatically updated in the system. He said that by scanning the QR code, the ration details for six months will be known. He said that it is easy to get ration anywhere in the country with a smart card.

He said that there are a total of 6, 20, 146 rice cards in Eluru district and about 17, 31, 461 people have registered their names through these cards. He said that 16, 15, 078 people have completed e-KYC in the district so far.

He said that due to the clarification that children below five years of age and those above 80 years of age do not need to do e-KYC, about 25,030 people were exempted from e-KYC.