Mangaluru, (The Hindu): The Food and Civil Supplies Department is hopeful of meeting the August 10 deadline of processing all online applications for issue of ration cards, said its Minister U.T. Khader on Thursday.

He told presspersons here that Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa on Wednesday issued clear instructions to the Deputy Commissioners of the districts to spare the services of Village Accountants in rural areas and Revenue Inspectors in urban areas for verification of applications. The directions were issued during a video-conference with district level officials in which Mr. Khader too took part. When the machinery came to know about the video-conferencing, over 20,000 applications were verified on Wednesday and another 25,000 on Thursday, Mr. Khader added. In all, over 17 lakh applications have been submitted online for issue of ration cards, 90% of which are for below poverty line cards. About one lakh applications have been verified so far, the Minister said.

Mr. Thimmappa directed the DCs to avail services of one more data entry operator at all Atal Janasnehi Kendras and if necessary, one more computer too, to speed up uploading information of verified applications. All the staff in those kendras should spare two hours — between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. — exclusively to upload ration card information, he said. While verification by the VA or RI would not take much time, uploading the information consumes a lot of time as at least 10 minutes is required for each application, he added.