The parties urge the government. For issuing new ration cards

Not only the MLAs of the opposition parties, but also those belonging to the ruling party requested the government to issue new ration (food security) cards to the eligible families, as a large number of applications are pending.

The issue came up prominently on Saturday during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly. Members of the TRS, MIM and BJP have requested the government to restore the canceled ration cards to the families who had moved to their original places after the COVID lockdown. They returned to the city after the ‘unlock’, but no ration card was left.

TRS member G. Vittal Reddy and Y. Anjaiah said that applications for the new election card were pending in his constituencies Mudhol and Shadnagar respectively. They wanted the approval of new fair price shops or the rehabilitation of some existing ones was also approved after the formation of some existing gram panchayats. He suggested that issuing new ration cards would not be a burden as illegal ration cards were canceled on 14 grounds. BJP member M. from Dubak. Raghunandan Rao made the same request.

MIM’s Ahmad bin Abdullah Bala reported that families who had left the city during the lockout and later returned found that their ration cards had been canceled and their efforts to restore the cards were proving futile .

Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar said in his reply that goods were not taken continuously for three months, as provided. However, those who returned to the city can contact the authorities concerned to reinstate the card or approve new ones.

He informed that out of 9,41,641 applications received for new ration cards, 3,59,974 new cards were already issued between June 2014 and June 2019 and another 4,88,750 applications were in process. The remaining applications were rejected. He also said that after covering Andhra Pradesh’s 1.91 crore population against the approval of 53.46 lakh food security cards to Telangana, the state government has issued 33.95 lakh more cards, taking the population to 2.79 crore.

In Hyderabad, 44,734 applicants were issued new cards and another 97,981 were pending.