Dhanbad : The widow of the below-poverty-level rickshaw-puller in Jharia who did not have a ration card and died on October 21 of illness attributed to malnutrition got a ration card on Wednesday, a day the district administration announced upcoming camps to register new ration cards.

On a day state food minister Saryu Roy denied the possibility that Baidyanath Ravidas, a rickshaw-puller, and two others in Simdega and Deoghar starved to death, but admitted their probe had bared ration delivery lacunae, Dhanbad DC Anjaneyulu Dodde said they would organise special camps for new ration card applicants across the district from October 26 to 31.

These special camps to register ration card applications will be held at 16 places, including five under Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) and 11 rural areas - 10 blocks and a panchayat.

At each, those wanting ration cards must come with their bank passbook, Aadhaar card and mobile number to get either Primary Household (PH) or Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards, whichever they are found eligible for.

AAY cards, which entitle a beneficiary to 35kg of grain a month for Re 1 a kilo, among other essential supplies, are issued to the economically weakest section.

Dhanbad additional district magistrate (supplies) Shashi Prakash Jha confirmed rickshaw-puller Ravidas's widow Parvati Devi got an AAY ration card on Wednesday.

For the camps, Jha added the ration card applicant must come personally or send a family member whose name was on the application form to eliminate middlemen.

DMC area camps will be held at the municipal office at Dhanbad and circle offices in Jharia, Sindri, Katras and Chatatand, and rural areas including Nirsa, Egyarkund, Kaliasol, Tundi, Purbi Tundi, Topchanchi, Govindpur, Baliapur, Baghmara and Dhanbad block offices and Chirkunda Nagar panchayat office.

The camps would be a big relief for many poor people.

On Tuesday, The Telegraph team, which went to Gopalikhak, some 3km away from Jharia's Tarabagan where BPL rickshaw-puller Ravidas died, most poor Dalits were seen without ration cards. Either they were excluded from the state government's 2015-16 socio-economic survey that listed BPL beneficiaries or never had a ration card out of ignorance or lacked Aadhaar cards that posed hurdles in getting PDS supplies.

A wizened 60-year-old Benga Bhuian, an SC man who had spent his life washing dirty glasses at roadside tea stalls, said on Tuesday his family didn't have two meals as a rule, only sometimes. He never had a ration card.