‘Ghost rationees’ will soon be thing of past, as CAPD to introduce photo ration card

‘Ghost rationees’ will soon be thing of past, as CAPD to introduce photo ration card

Yash Khajuria   9/22/2011 8:57:07 PM


JAMMU, Sept 22: The ‘ghost rationees’ who constitute about 10 per cent of the total 44.30 lakh souls getting ration from the depots of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department across the Jammu region, will soon be a thing of past as the Department has come up with unique photo ration cards. 


These cards, which are being introduced for the first time in the State, will not only help in detecting and deletion of ‘ghost rationees’ but also check misappropriation of Government ration by the dealers appointed by the Department to provide ration to the people in their respective areas. 


These photo ration cards will be given to all the Above Poverty Line (APL), Below Poverty Line (BPL) and AAY categories of rationees. Each ration card will have the photograph of head of the family and names of other members of the family. 


Sources said that existing ration cards have large scale discrepancies which have crept mainly due to the vested interests of certain ration dealers and out of total 44.30 lakh rationees registered with the CAPD Department, about ten per cent of them are virtually non-existing. 


Now, the CAPD Department in tie-up with the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, has come up with unique photo ration cards to get rid of ghost rationees once for all, check misappropriation of Government ration and bring transparency at the depots level, the sources disclosed, adding all the 9.70 lakh families will get these cards within a period of four to six months. 


The application forms for the photo ration cards will be given to the rationees by the concerned dealers, who will later submit the same to CAPD Department for verification. The concerned Area Inspector of the Department will then verify the details mentioned in the forms by conducting door-to-door survey in the urban areas while the Patwari will conduct the verification exercise in the rural areas. 


Each card has a separate six digit number and the same will also be mentioned in the two copies of month-wise coupons attached in the ration card. While one copy of the coupon will remain affixed in the ration card, the another mentioning quantity of ration purchased with rate charged from the rationees and signature of dealer will have to be submitted by the concerned dealer to the department at the end of every month.