Hyderabad: The Telangana government has identified 6.68 lakh underprivileged families in the state eligible for new ration cards, a list of which has been sent to all district representatives in the state.
The names of 11,65,052 individuals are a part of this list of families.
The state will hold gram and basti sabhas inviting objections between January 20 to 24 following which a final list will be confirmed based on information provided by district collectors, expected to begin on January 26, reported Eenadu.
The issuing of these ration cards in Telangana will help in pushing other schemes promised by the Congress government including Aarogyasri, free electricity up to 200 units, Rs 500 gas cylinders, and fee reimbursement for students.
The eligibility for the cards and other schemes will be based on the Comprehensive Family Survey conducted by the government of Telangana in November last year.
According to the preliminary list, Hyderabad has the highest number of eligible families, with 83,285 families, while Vanaparthi district has the lowest number with 6,647 families.
Making it clear that the new ration cards will be issued in the state as per the previous eligibility rules, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy instructed the district collectors to take precautions that a person should not possess the the document in multiple places.
Issuing new ration cards and sanctioning of Indiramma houses are among four schemes to be launched by the government on January 26.
Addressing concerns over rumours of discontinuation of old ones amid survey for new ones, the Telangana minister of transport and BC welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar urged the public not to be misled by rumours suggesting that the government is conducting field-level surveys to cancel existing ration cards for ineligible candidates.
Prabhakar clarified that the ongoing verification process is intended solely for the distribution of new ration cards.
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