Hearing a PIL, a division bench asked the state government to give a district-wise break up of fake ration cards and inform what action it proposed to take against officers responsible for issuing bogus ration cards.
Justice A M Khanvilkar and Justice R Y Ganoo asked the state to file an affidavit in this regard within three weeks and warned that if it failed to do so, then they would order the secretary of food and civil supplies to take action in a time-bound manner.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Jayprakash Unecha alleging that hundreds of bogus ration cards were in existence in Pune and other parts of the State.
On the last occasion, the state had disclosed that there were altogether 11 lakh bogus ration cards in circulation and many of them were found to be invalid, while some were fake.
The judges noted that the magnitude of the fraud was quite enormous considering the fact that there were 11 lakh bogus ration cards existing in the state.
The government pleader disclosed that the state had taken action against offenders although the number of fake ration cards was less. Most of such ration cards were invalid, it contended.
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Earlier, the court had asked the government to ensure that inquiry into bogus ration cards scam was completed soon and action is taken against errant officers.
The state government had informed the court then that it had asked the Pune collector to conduct an inquiry and submit a report immediately. Also, it had issued a circular ordering similar inquiries in other districts. (MORE)PTI SVS BA
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