Bangalore:
Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister had recently admitted to NDTV that there are around 50 lakh bogus ration cards floating across the state. Now, the state government is on a massive cleansing drive which, it believes, will not only weed out bogus cards but also detect illegal LPG gas connections with a single programme.
People have been asked to give details of their ration cards, electricity meter numbers and LPG consumer numbers, failing which they risk losing their LPG connections.
The civil supplies department plans to digitise this data, saying it can detect and check misuse. However, not many are convinced.
"Some people don't have a ration card, some have no electricity bill. What will those poor people do? Look at me now, my correct name is not there," says Bangalore resident S Ahmedulla.
However, the state government argues it's a way to implement the rule of one LPG connection per family.
B A Harish Gowda, Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, Karnataka says,"This is not harassment, they are getting subsidised gas, subsidised food grain.. so accounting for it cannot be harassment and the important thing is, as far as gas consumer is concerned, in more than a decade, we are asking just a simple number but I have receivedd large number of telephone calls complimenting us.."
Storing documents of lakhs of LPG customers is a logistical nightmare but its only after February 28 that the true picture is expected to emerge.