Karnataka government today said it would do away with the procedure of having an introducer mandatory for applying for ration cards if the applicant had Above Poverty Line LPG connection.
"We are in the process of taking a decision that no introducer is required in the case of those having APL gas," Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Dinesh Gundurao, said in the legislative Assembly.
The government's decision came in the wake of complaints that the procedure is actually unwarranted and causing hardship for fresh applicants who had to seek out for "introducers" causing inconvenience and wastage of time.
He said the government has received 15 lakh new applications -- about 75 per cent from rural areas -- seeking ration cards, and they would be carefully examined.
Sunil Kumar V and Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri (both BJP), who raised the issue during question hour, sought to highlight the plight of applicants, saying Panchayats are overburdened with the application-uploading task and many had to come again several times because of poor Internet connectivity.
Kageri suggested increasing of web server capacity and handing over the process to private Internet cafes, similar to the procedure in the city. He alleged web cameras are not working rural areas and suggested appointment of computer operators on a contract basis.
Gundurao said trouble in the uploading process in rural areas was because of broadband connectivity issues and nothing to do with web server capacity which is sufficient.
The minister said there was plan to give the money raised by way of the charge of Rs 50 for application uploading process -- estimated to be Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore -- to the department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
Meanwhile, the issue of shortage of doctors in government hospitals generated a lot of heat in the Assembly.
Health Minister U T Khader said the bill making it mandatory for doctors to undertake rural service is pending Presidential assent and once it becomes a law, the matter is expected to be mitigated to a major extent.
He said the Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told him that the Centre is mulling a legislation making it mandatory for students to give an undertaking before joining the MBBS that they would serve in rural areas.
Several members suggested raising salary of government doctors substantially, while former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar pushed for crack-down on private nursing homes that are not run according to norms and regulations.
