I applied for a LPG gas connection, but was denied because I did not have a ration card.
I am strongly against use of Ration Card of PDS (public distribution system) for address Proof. Why?
Firstly whats the purpose of Ration Card?
1) Distribute a limited quantity of Food and other essential Items at sub-market rates… so that the incidence of malnutrition is less.
2) To save the environment by supplying alternative fuel (Kerosene oil) and hence discouraging people from chopping trees for firewood or using unhealthy and smoky cow dung cakes.
For these noble missions to be achieved
1) the scheme should cover all the needy.
2) It should prevent people profiteering by owning fictitious cards.
So essentially this document is a nothing more than a proof of existence and citizenship. By making it an address proof you hit the following problems:
1) Needy homeless people, migratory labor, and people who cannot afford an authorized housing and live in slums are immediately debarred from its benefits. Hence defeating its very purpose.
2) You artificially increase the value of this document creating all sorts of trouble. Esp. Considering Ration Card has little or no security provisions against tampering and forgery.
3) You force rich and upper middle class (who do not avail the benefits of ration card) the hassle of maintaining it.
4) This increases the paperwork of the government by issuing cards to people who will never use it.
5) It increases the chances of pilferage, impersonation, and profiteering because the ration allocation to the rich would be diverted to the black market.
6) Most Importantly: Since it is a proof of address, it has been repeatedly used against the government in regularization of Slums and Janta Colony. So its puts government under the dilemma… deny PDS to the real poor BPL (below Poverty line) persons or lose control over a prime piece of Land… More often then not, the latter wins.
