Berhampur, April 24: Bhanjanagar police have arrested two women from Lunijhola village in Ganjam district for registering themselves for digitised ration cards under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in violation of the rules.
Both of them were produced before the court yesterday and were then sent to judicial custody.
"We lodged an FIR in the police station after we found that both Golap Panda, 45, and Tuni Panda, 42, owned a two-storey building. They figure very much in the exclusion criteria," said supply inspector of Jagannath Prasad block Jayant Dash.
Ganjam district collectorPrem Chandra Choudhary issued a circular on August 10 last year stating that a person who has a three-room concrete house cannot apply for a ration card.
"Both Golap and Tuni didn't bother to adhere to it. I also requested them not to insist for the digitised ration cards when we found during investigation that they were not in the beneficiary category," said Dash.
Block development officer Kailash Chandra Murmu prepared a list of 13 similar violators. "We have lodged FIRs in various police stations against them," said Dash.
"We have already registered a case under Sections 465 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code after the supply inspector lodged an FIR," said the inspector in charge of Bhanjanagar police station, Aswini Kumar Sahu.
Provisions under the NFSA exclude government employees, income tax payers, persons having vehicles, including two-wheelers, businessmen with TIN (taxpayer identification number), households with electricity consumption of above 300 units per month, persons having power tillers, fishing boats or other heavy vehicles and professional tax payers from enjoying benefits under the act.
Recently, Ganjam district administration had suspended nine government employees for committing the same offence.
The district collector said ineligible applicants, who figure in the exclusion criteria, should withdraw their applications at the earliest failing which the administration would be forced to take legal action against them.
