Cuttack, May 19: Orissa High Court today endorsed the necessity of a door-to-door survey for identifying persons entitled for new ration cards under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and directed the Orissa government to complete the process soon.

No new ration card has been issued during the past 14 years. Consequently, a large population remained deprived of the PDS benefits.

As part of the verification drive to eliminate bogus PDS ration cards, the Orissa government had, in pursuance of a Supreme Court order, undertaken verification process both in rural and urban areas on the days of distribution of essential commodities by officials appointed for supervision of the Fair Price Shops in November 2010.

Alokchandra Bisoi and six other residents of Bhubaneswar filed the PIL challenging the process as it had left no room for identification of persons for issuing new ration cards.

While seeking a stay order, the petitioners had sought direction for conducting door-to-door survey to eliminate bogus ration cards vis-à-vis identifying persons entitled for new ration cards under the PDS.

On November 23, 2010, the high court refused to grant the interim stay order, but decided to consider plea for the new ration cards.

“While disposing off the PIL, the division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra allowed the plea and conduct door-to-door survey to identify persons eligible to get new ration cards vis-à-vis eliminating bogus ration cards and complete the process as soon as possible,” petitioner counsel Madhu Sudan Panda told The Telegraph today.

No verification of the PDS ration cards has been conducted in Orissa since 1996. “A ray of hope for issuance of new ration cards had come with the Supreme Court order, but identification of persons eligible for new ration cards would not be possible without door-to-door verification process,” Panda said.

News reports had alleged circulation of 2.5 lakh bogus cards in Orissa. Taking judicial note of it, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma directed: “By a newspaper advertisement, a warning be issued asking all the bogus card holders to surrender the bogus cards forthwith, in any event within two weeks of the advertisement, otherwise criminal proceedings may be initiated against the bogus card holders.”