Of Ration Cards and Fast Food

Aditi Kavarana

DRAFT – PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE

For all those of you who thought that obtaining a ration card was a difficult and long winded process requiring this long list of documents, and heavy bribes, this one is for you. Quick service seems to be the byword of the circle offices of Delhi. In fact, taking into account the fact that a ration card is your ticket to cheap food, the ration card department could be called the fast food joint of the Delhi government.

There are four main items on the menu: acquiring an all new ration card, transferring a ration card between two states, acquiring a K.O.D. card and replacing a damaged or lost card.

In case you wish to acquire an all new ration card, you must submit an affidavit at your nearest district court which states that you are a citizen of India, you have resided in Delhi for the respective amount of years, and that you have consumed essential goods for the same number of years. Essential goods are all those, which are distributed at fixed price shops at subsidized rates such as, rice, wheat, sugar etc. This clause might seem faintly absurd to you, in that it would be virtually impossible for anybody to survive without consuming goods like rice and sugar, however apart from the absurdity; it suffers from no evils of complication or elaborateness. The affidavit is lodged on stamp paper costing just Rs. 2, and can be filed by any common attorney.

The 2 other things required now are proof of residence and 3 passport sized photographs attested by a gazette officer. These might seem difficult to obtain, but they’re actually quite simple. Proof of residence could be a registration deed, allotment letter, power of attorney or a house tax receipt in case of an owned house, and a no objection certificate in case of a rented house. If you can’t furnish either of the above, the govt. will conduct spot inquiries by recording statements of 2 witnesses in the neighbourhood. Getting your photographs attested by a gazetted officer might be difficult, in case you don’t know one personally. This is perhaps the only aspect of the entire process, which requires you to run around or conversely bribe the official. In case you’re thinking of taking the latter option, the market rate is Rs. 15, so make sure you have that much in your pocket.

After submitting the above acquiring a ration card could take anywhere between 15 days: the prescribed time period by the govt. to 2 months, which would happen in case processing of documents at every stage is delayed because of normal govt. inefficiency.

In case you are transferring residence from one state to another and therefore are applying for a transfer of residence, then you require from no. 1, which is easily downloadable from the net, 3 passport sized photographs, proof of residence, and either the old card, or the surrender/deletion certificate of the old card. The estimated time span is the same as above.

If you wish to replace a lost or damaged card, you must fill in form no.1 again, and three passport photographs. You must again provide proof of residence, and submit the fixed price shop no. and the consumer card no.

A K.O.D. card is meant for the poor who don’t have a gas connection, and wish to use kerosene for lighting and illumination purposes. The application form for this is appended to form no. 1, and you must also have your ration card no., and circle no.

Although the process in itself is quite simple, and you get what you ordered for after only a reasonable wait, there are a few loopholes in it. There aren’t sufficient safeguards to ensure that more than one member of the same household doesn’t acquire a ration card. Once a gazetted officer agrees to attest the photographs, verification in the office by an inspector is only a formality. Also, for an all-new ration card, an affidavit must be filed by an attorney, who may swindle you into submitting a large number of documents, and thus hike up his court fees.

Hence, surprisingly enough for an Indian government department, the circle offices do serve up a ration card quite promptly and professionally, and at the end of the meal the tip you have to give is really quite small. What more could you want from an eat-house?

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