Vijayawada: Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar said that there is no specific time limit for the sanction of ration cards and it is a continuous process. He said people can apply for new ration cards and also for changes to be made in these cards.

Addressing the media at the Civil Supplies Commissioner’s office on Thursday, Nadendla Manohar said the government will sanction new ration cards within 21 days of the application submitted to the government. Informing that the government began changes in the ration cards from May 7 onwards, he informed that the government could not change the ration cards in the last two years. He said the government has completed EKYC of all ration cards and AP is the only State in India that has completed 95 per cent EKYC.

The Minister said EKYC completed to 4.24 crore people and only 22.59 lakh are pending. He said some people are suffering due to slow process of the servers. Referring to new ration cards, he stated 60,000 people have applied for new ration cards and 44,000 people have applied for the deletion of cards and another 12,500 persons applied for change of address. Manohar said rice cards data is connected to village/ward secretariats after the Coalition government came to power. Stating that the server was slow for the past few days and people suffered hardships, he informed that the officials are trying to rectify the technical problems. He rendered apology to the people for facing problems due to the server slowdown.

He suggested the new applicants need not worry and made it clear that free rice cards will be issued to 4.24 crore people.

Referring to change, Manohar said there is no need of marriage certificate and marriage photos for the changes in ration cards and issued instructions to the ward/village secretariat staff to do changes without asking the proof of marriage certificate or marriage photo.

Manohar said document proof is must for the deletion of names in the rice cards and only death cases are considered. He said if the family members are living in other states and other countries their names can be deleted without valid reason. He said changes are made in the ration cards basing on the feedback collected by the staff. Manohar said many people are suffering due to slowdown of server and assured that the problem will be rectified very soon and rice card surrender option is available on WhatsApp, he added.