Priority ration cards

The distribution of 65,000 new priority ration cards in the state is something that the Food and Civil Supplies Department can be proud of. With this, the total number of priority ration cards reclassified and issued during the tenure of the present government has reached seven lakh. When the National Food Security Act, 2013, introduced the concept of a Targeted Public Distribution System, it came as a major setback for Kerala, where universal rationing had existed since 1965. Under the current system, only 52.63 percent of the rural population and 39.5 percent of the urban population fall under the priority category. At present, a total of 15,480,040 beneficiaries are included in the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (yellow card) and Priority Household (pink card) categories. Because of the new system, the state’s food grain allocation was reduced from more than 16 lakh tonnes to 14.25 lakh tonnes.

However, Kerala remains the only state in India that continues to provide ration to all its people. After allocating the permitted quota to the priority category, the limited “tide-over” stock is used to supply ration to the non-priority categories holding blue and white cards. The state government has repeatedly requested the Centre to include all eligible families in the priority list, but the demand has not yet been considered. In this situation, the government offered people who were ineligible but holding priority ration cards an opportunity to surrender them without facing fines or punishment. As a result, 217,665 cards were voluntarily returned. In addition, 17,596 priority cards that were illegally retained were confiscated, and a total fine of Rs 4,19,19,456 was collected. Through these measures, 6,50,258 priority cards that became available were reclassified and issued to deserving families over the past five years. In the latest phase, 65,000 eligible families who had applied for reclassification were given priority ration cards.

As a minister, G R Anil has delivered notable performance over the past five years. His direct monitoring of market interventions to control the rising prices of essential commodities has been widely appreciated. Since the department deals closely with the daily lives of people, complaints are inevitable. However, the minister’s prompt intervention and efforts to resolve such issues have been a key feature of his tenure.

Recently, the minister also noted that the achievements of the department are largely due to the hard work of its employees. He added that amendments were made to rules with the aim of ensuring that no individual in Kerala remains without a ration card. Sharing a personal experience during the priority card distribution programme, the minister said that before becoming a minister, he had to spend three years visiting government offices to obtain a BPL ration card for an ordinary family.