The number of ration cards issued to households below poverty line is reduced by about 25 per cent, as per the T-Government planning . By year end, the government implements the guidelines for issuance of new cards that will replace the existing ones.
Presently, there are 80.13 lakh cards in the State and the plan is to restrict the number of BPL cards.
No guidelines has been framed for issuance of new ration cards under the FSA, disclosed official sources.
“The Revenue Department officials who will scrutinise the applications have been told to use discretion while selecting the beneficiaries by assessing the living standards of the households,” the official said.
For issuance of new ration cards, 89,66,701 households have applied for new cards till October 20 that mostly come from the urban areas of Ranga Reddy district and Hyderabad city. “The process in rural areas was almost saturated as the number of applicants at designated centres was very thin for the last couple of days,” the sources stated.