35 Lakh fake ration card holders...

But state's ration shop owners refuse to collect information necessary for spotting fakes, as it is something they did four years back as well

But state's ration shop owners refuse to collect information necessary for spotting fakes, as it is something they did four years back as well

The state government's project to computerise ration cards, in order to weed out fake ration card holders, has hit a surprising roadblock: ration shop owners.
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They are in no mood to carry out the extensive process of collecting information about more than 2 crore ration card holders a second time, when they had already done so four years ago.

First time

In 2005, when the state government realised that fake ration cards were causing problems for national security, it decided to computerise all ration cards in the state and issued directives to ration shop owners to collect information about ration card holders.

Chal, Fake Mat: Ration shop owners have threatened to approach the court if they are forced to collect information once again.

The ration shop owners did so, but the government claimed that they had collected information only of 29 lakh of the 2.15 crore ration card holders in the state.

Besides, the private agency, which was awarded the project contract failed to execute it.

"We had done the whole exercise and now the state government wants us to do it all over again, when it is their job and not ours.

We are not equipped to do this," said Anna Chavan, president, Ration Shop Owners Association of Mumbai. "We will approach the court, if the government fails to listen to us," he added.

Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Anil Deshmukh said, "We estimate that there are 30 to 35 lakh fake ration card holders in the state.
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Therefore, we started this process this month to weed out fake cards and eliminate them.

Ration shop owners should co-operate, as all they have to do is distribute forms and collect them. As for the project, we may renegotiate with the old agency or appoint a new agency for it."

4,700
Number of ration shops in 'Mumbai and Thane region. Each shop has around 1,000 to 1,200 ration card holders