BANGALORE: Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister R. Ashok has said biometric ration cards for both below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (APL) categories will be issued in the State in another two months.
The Minister told presspersons here on Wednesday that the Union Government had informed the State Government that it would reimburse the expenditure incurred for issuing the biometric cards to families. Issuance of biometric cards would result in one household having only one card — whether APL or BPL.
It had been estimated that there are 20 lakh bogus BPL card-holders out of the 1.07 crore BPL families, who have been given cards in the State, while there are a total of 1.17 crore families, including APL card-holders. It meant that there were only 10 per cent of the middle-class families. The detection of bogus BPL families would help the Union Government save resources and foodgrains.
Mr. Ashok said that details of all families would be collected from electricity supply companies and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and other government agencies. This would be tallied with the BPL families, filtering out the bogus card-holders.
He said that a large quantity of foodgrains distributed to BPL families was being diverted to the black market. His said that his department had raided rice mills and had seized foodgrains.