Bhatti launches smart ration cards in Khammam

Hyderabad: Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka handed out Digital Smart Ration Cards to beneficiaries at the Khammam Collectorate on Independence Day, part of a statewide rollout that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy formally launched at a public meeting in Sangareddy the same day.

Bhatti used the occasion to press home a broader argument that his government exists to serve ordinary people rather than to wield power for its own sake. He said the Congress-led Indiramma government was building the foundations for Telangana’s development, with an ambition that stretched beyond competing with other Indian states to matching developed countries globally.

He linked the ration card drive to Independence Day itself, calling it a reminder that the freedoms and democratic rights citizens now exercise came from leaders who won the country its independence and its Constitution.

On the numbers, Bhatti said Telangana has about 1.15 crore families, of which 1,06,28,092 already hold ration cards. Through these cards, the government supplies 6 kg of fine rice a month to 3,42,57,109 beneficiaries at no cost; rice, he said, would otherwise cost Rs 50 to Rs 55 per kg in the open market, with the state government footing the entire bill through the Civil Supplies Department. In Khammam district alone, 62,158 new ration cards have been sanctioned since the government took office, adding to the 4,73,275 that already existed.

The new smart cards are part of a broader technology upgrade: durable, waterproof PVC cards roughly the size of an ATM card, replacing paper cards and photocopies, with an embedded QR code intended to prevent duplication and fraudulent claims.

The cards carry photographs of Revanth Reddy and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, a choice that has already drawn political friction, with BJP leaders objecting to the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph given that five of the six kilograms of rice distributed monthly come from central government stocks.

Bhatti also aimed at the previous BRS government, accusing it of neglecting ration card access and healthcare coverage under Aarogyasri, which he said had left poor families to sell property to pay hospital bills. He said his government raised Aarogyasri coverage from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh soon after taking office, and pointed to other welfare measures including Indiramma housing, up to 200 units of free electricity for poor households, and free RTC bus travel for women, for which he said the state has already reimbursed the transport corporation more than Rs 10,700 crore.