Aadhaar must for Rs 1-kg rice

• T govt stops food grain supply to white card holders without Aadhaar
• Civil supplies dept says it is an attempt to weed out bogus ration cards
• There are more ration cards than the number of households
• State will save Rs 500 cr if bogus cards are weeded out

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has stopped the supply of food grains to white card holders who do not possess Aadhaar cards with effect from July 1.

The government, according to official sources, has made it mandatory that all beneficiaries across Telangana state who want to get Rs-kg rice and other essential commodities should produce Aadhaar card along with the white ration card.

The Civil Supplies department has issued this order to all the district collectors despite the recent Supreme Court directive to the state governments and the Centre not to insist on Aadhaar cards for availing benefits under social schemes.

According to officials of the civil supplies department, the instructions to the district collectors were sent following a directive from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao so that the department can identify the real beneficiaries and weed out the bogus ration cards. If any genuine white card holder did not have Aadhaar card, he should immediately apply for it and get it, the officials said.

Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district chief rationing officer M Padma told The Hans India that Aadhaar card would be considered as ID (Identification) proof for all the beneficiaries of PDS schemes. The fair price shops dealers have been instructed to register all the names of beneficiaries who fail to submit Aadhar cards and send the records to the department on a weekly basis for weeding out of bogus cards.

The officials said that as per the civil supplies department figures, the total number of ration cards in Telangana is 1.47 crore. Of them, 91.94 lakh were white ration cards and 15.07 lakh are pink cards. However, the total number of households in the state as per Census 2011 was only 84.20 lakh. Another 41 lakh Antyodaya cards (green cards) were also issued by the Centre since 2000, to provide 35 kg of rice and wheat at just Rs 3 and Rs 2 respectively. The figures indicated that there was an excess of 22 lakh ration cards in the state when compared to total number of households. It seems a large number of bogus cards were issued by successive governments. The official said that if the bogus cards were weeded out, the government could save Rs 500 crore on food grain subsidy.