The district administration is all set to launch a drive in the district to identify fake ration card holders. The administration will take the help of gram sabhas in identifying the fake ration card holders.

The administration's move is aimed at removing the inconsistencies in the PDS supply. Block level officials will supervise the identification process of fake ration card holders of different categories like those possessing red cards or AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) cards or yellow cards or green cards.

The respective gram sabhas will identify the fake card holders at separate meetings.

The proceedings will take place in the presence of block-level officials of the gram sabhas concerned, Gumla district supply officer K P Kichingia, said, adding that officials of the supply department would also be a part of the team.

The administration has fixed dates for each gram sabha in all the 11 blocks of the district, Kichingia said.

Currently, the district has 576 PDS shops and 44,385 BPL card holders, 32,947 AAY card holders and around 80,000 APL card holders. Red card holders, too, will now get ration supply on a par with AAY card holders.

Gumla DC Rahul Verma said that the verification drive was necessary in view of the fact that many card holders of different categories have either passed away or migrated to other places.

The administration has appealed to the members of the gram sabhas to make the drive a success in the district.

June 5, 2009 / TNN