Telangana government intends to reduce the number of ration cards issued to households below the poverty line by 25 percent by implementing guidelines for issuing new cards, which will replace the existing order year. There are currently 80.13 lakh cards in the state. 

The plan to restrict the number of BPL cards stems from fear of increasing load with the implementation of the Food Security Act (FSA). Each household is to get 5 kg of rice per head per month without any upper limit on the size of the household. The Act requires coverage of 61 percent rural and 41 percent urban population thereunder and the costs of supply of raw materials in the BPL cards issued beyond that has to be borne by the State Government . 

Official sources revealed that the government has framed new guidelines for issuing new ration cards under the FSA, but a political decision was made to deny the benefit to households with four wheels, large companies, large buildings and outstanding professionals among family members. 

"Officials from the Department of Revenue to examine the applications have been told to use discretion in selecting recipients by evaluating living standards of households," the official said. 

The number of cards including BPL ration cards white (81.1 lakh), cards 'Antyodaya Anna Yojna' (7.87 lakh) and 'Annapurna' (0.2 lakh) cards was 89.17 lakh on 1 July this year. However, the number stood at 80.13 lakh as on 20 October after fake ration booklets were eliminated by seeding with Aadhaar cards and field verification. 

In response to the government's decision to accept applications from 8 October to issue new ration cards, 89,66,701 households have applied for new cards until October 20. The number is likely to go for 5-6 lakh with applications expected to come mostly from urban areas of Ranga Reddy district and the city of Hyderabad. "The process in rural areas was nearly saturated as the number of applicants in the designated centers was very thin in the last couple of days," the sources said.