A priest in Baran district of Rajasthan was found receiving supplies from PDS on a forged ration card that he had made in the name of deities in his temple in Kajikher area of the city.
AP
According to district supply officer, Shankar Lal Meena, Babu Lal (70) a priest at a temple in Kajikher area in Baran had received supplies on behalf of an unusual ration card which he claimed was issued to him in 2015. "The ration card belonged to one Murli Manohar (70) which is also a name of Lord Krishna, the card mentioned Thankurni Ji (65) as the wife of Manohar," he added. The officials were left scratching their heads when they read the name of the last member of the family. "The card mentioned Shri Ganesh (35) as the son of Manohar and Thakurni Ji. These were also the popular names of the deities of his temple which gave rise to the suspicion," he added.
rajasthanpatrika
Looking at anomalies, the food supplies department informed their officers. Babulal was summoned by the officials on Friday and was directed to produce the ration card holders on behalf of whom he had come to collect the ration from the PDS shop. "Babulal did not know that we have installed bio-metric machines to rein in forged ration card holders. The priest later admitted that all the name were, in fact, gods of his temple which are revered by his followers," he added. The officials said that under the address section of the card, the priest had given the address of his temple, which further blew the lid off his irregularities.
"The card has been seized by us. We are checking how much supply he had received from the PDS though this card. These are some of the common tactics used by villagers to get additional ration from PDS but the bio metric signs have made it impossible to fool the department," an official said.