Ration Card: A very important and comforting news has come to light for the citizens of Pune district. As many as 68 thousand suspicious ration cards have come under the administration’s radar in Pune district in the ration card purification campaign launched by the state government to bring transparency in the Public Distribution System (PDS). This action includes the ration cards of Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation limits as well as Pune rural areas.

The main objective of this campaign is to curb malpractice and ensure that cheap food grains reach only the truly needy beneficiaries. In recent times, complaints of misuse of ration cards by ineligible beneficiaries have increased in many places. Against this backdrop, the government has undertaken a district-wise inspection campaign.

The campaign involved thorough screening of beneficiaries based on Aadhaar card numbers, computerized records and online data. Many shocking things have come out in the investigation. The names of the deceased are still found on some ration cards.

In some places, it was seen that the name of the same person was recorded on two different ration cards. Besides, many cases with wrong information of income, discrepancy in number of family members and discrepancy in address have been marked as suspicious.

In order to verify these suspicious records, actual house visits have been started by the Supply Department. Supply inspectors and concerned officials are going door to door to check documents, family information and residential details of the beneficiaries. This physical examination will clarify the difference between eligible and ineligible beneficiaries.

Tehsildars have been given the final authority to exclude names from the respective ration cards or cancel the ration cards based on the report prepared after the complete inspection. After the approval of the Tehsildar, the ineligible ration cards will be closed.

Due to this strict action, malpractices in the public distribution system will be controlled to a large extent, and the real needy families will be able to get regular and sufficient food grains. Also, the administration has expressed the belief that the system will become more capable and reliable by making proper use of the government subsidy.