Rajahmundry, July 16^th: Authorities will start weeding out of bogus ration cards as a pilot project in six mandals each, in both East and West Godavari districts from August 10. The large number of bogus ration cards are increasing burden upon the state exchequer to provide welfare benefits to all beneficiaries, the government has started this exercise despite criticism from opposition parties.

Teams of officials comprising district level officials and tahsildars from select mandals are being trained on ways and means to identify bogus ration cards and the procedure to eliminate them at the office of the civil supplies commissioner in Hyderabad. Soon after the officials return from training, they will in turn train officials including deputy tahsildars and other officials to go ahead with the exercise of weeding out of bogus ration cards.

In East Godavari about 15 lakh ration cards are existing in which nearly 12.62 lakh are white cards. In West Godavari, nearly 11.61 lakh ration cards exist in which 9.37 lakh are white while 1.29 lakh are pink. The state government changed its stance and wanted to remove bogus cards on a large scale and reduce the burden on the state exchequer.