Beneficiaries yearn for permanent ration cards

Hyderabad: As the Telangana State government is not issuing permanent ration cards/food security cards, the ration cardholders are struggling to draw their entitlements from FPS and beneficiaries are forced to take online printouts every month. Vexed with the issue, members of the Association for Socio-Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised (ASEEM) and the beneficiaries demanded the State government to issue permanent food security cards and they also submitted a representation to the civil supplies department.

Social activist and secretary of ASEEM, S Q Masood, said, "In Telangana, almost all the beneficiaries under National Food Security Act (NFSA-2013) are facing a lot of difficulties due to the non-availability of ration card. Despite of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Government of India in 2019 requested all the States/Union Territories for standardisation of ration cards under NFSA with a view to achieve the aim of national portability, leading to the realisation of the concept of One Nation One Ration Card. However, the State government have not issued any permanent ration card to the households after the formation of Telangana. Beneficiaries are forced to take an online printout from their digital database every month to draw their entitlements from FPS."

Ration card serves as a proof of nationality. It is an important document that not only serves as an identity proof but also indicates an individual's economic status and it is mandatory to produce ration cards to apply for other government schemes like Scholarships, Aasara pensions. It will be better if the State government takes steps for issuance of permanent food security cards to the beneficiaries, he added.

R Anil, a beneficiary said, "We are facing hardship due to non-availability of ration cards, as the fair price shop (FPS) owners are compelling us to bring the new online printouts every month. Sometimes we are unable to get fresh print out from the database as the server is down. We have asked the concerned officials to issue permanent ration cards but no action has been taken."

"We are vexed of visiting the civil supply office every month and requesting them for issuing a permanent ration card, due to which we are deprived of getting the entitlements from the ration shop," said Ramesh, another beneficiary.