Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar revealed that the state cabinet has decided to abolish the MDU vehicle system in the distribution of ration rice and the ration rice will be supplied through ration shops from June 1. However, he explained that ration door delivery will be done only for the elderly and disabled above 65 years of age.
He also revealed that 9,260 vehicles will be transferred to the beneficiaries free of cost and that ration shops will be available for 15 days a month. He said that ration rice was distributed through ration shops in the past, but the previous government destroyed the ration shops through MDU vehicles. The minister revealed that the previous government had misused Rs. 1,860 crores of public money for 9,260 MDU vehicles.
Minister Nadendla also expressed his anger that rice was smuggled illegally by showing fraudulent accounts in the past. He also clarified that the priority of the coalition government is the farmers and the agricultural sector and the government will provide full support to the farmers in terms of affordable prices.
He said that some issues regarding the applications for issuing smart ration cards have come to the attention of the government. He said that 2.54 lakh applications have been received to add new members to the ration card and 40,000 applications have been received for new ration cards. He explained that only 5900 applications have been received for address changes.
The Minister explained that newly married people have been advised to take new ration cards. Minister Nadendla said that a marriage certificate is not required at the time of registration. He said that some other services have to be connected and everything will be corrected within 48 hours.
He clarified that there is a lot of burden on the server and that the deadline for receiving applications will also be extended. The minister assured that the complaints regarding the issuance of new ration cards will be resolved. He said that there are some technical issues, but they are being resolved immediately. The Minister clarified that the secretariat staff will come to the house and do verification.