At CFCs, get ration cards without hassles

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

Feb 27, Aundh (Pune): In an attempt to streamline the process of issuing ration cards and keeping a tab on touts and ill-practices, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to set up a citizen facilitation centre (CFC) at Aundh soon.

The facility will provide a platform for residents to apply and collect ration cards from Aundh CFC itself. The facility will be run by the food development officer (FDO) on experimental basis.

PMC mooted the idea of setting up CFCs after Aundh and Baner residents complained of gross illegal practices and role of touts in distribution of ration cards, a spokesman of PMC said.

Rahul Borundiya, a resident, vividly recalls the day he finally got his ration card. "I had to run after it for months. Even now, on hearing about ration cards what comes to mind is my countless trips to the city rationing office and the peculiar smell of its interiors!,"
he laughs.

Though his family had been settled in the city for decades, he never felt the need for a ration card. Not until he was asked to enclose a copy of the ration card to prove his identity for a job application.

When he applied for the card he was asked to give details of his previous card. "I tried to convince them that we never had a card. They refused to accept it. Neither did they tell me what I was supposed to do to get a card," Borundiya says.

Finally one day, almost six months after he applied, he ran out of patience. "I bribed a clerk in the rationing office for Rs 1,200 and received the card within a month," he recalls.

Touts are doing brisk business at the PMC office, complain ration-card applicants. Ravi Aggarwal reveals he had been promised a form for Rs 300 without hassle of waiting in the long queue.

FDO Pradeep Patil, however, says that CFC would streamline the distribution of ration cards and keep a tab on illegal practices and touts. "The FDO himself will collect applications from CFCs daily. After scrutinising them, the cards will be issued within eight days of submission," he said.

"We have decided to decentralise the application and distribution procedures of ration cards to simplify the process and reduce the waiting period," Patil said. "We approached PMC in this regard and the process of issuing of cards will be undertaken jointly," he said.