Take action against bogus card holders, says Pawar

New Delhi, Apr 21: As many as 37.6 million extra BPL ration cards have been issued in the country, of which 6.74 million were found to be bogus, Food Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Lok Sabha today.

According to the Planning Commission and the Rural Development Ministry guidelines, there are 65.2 million BPL families in the country, but the State Governments have issued ration cards to 100.28 million such families. ''Thus 37.6 excess ration cards have been issued,'' Mr Pawar said in reply to supplementaries. He said the Centre had issued instructions to all State and Union Territory Governments to take action against those found in possession of bogus or fake ration cards.

As a result, 13 state governments had detected and deleted 6.74 million bogus or ineligible ration cards since July 2006, he added.

UNI