Mangaluru : To discourage people from using kerosene to create a smokeless society, the state government has planned ‘Punar Belaku Yojane.’

Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader on Thursday said that the soon-to-be launched scheme is aimed at distributing rechargeable two LED bulbs for free to those Above Poverty Line (APL) card holders who surrender their share of kerosene. The card holders are being given one litre of kerosene as per their quota. They will have to give an undertaking to claim their benefit, he added.

The bulbs will be supplied by Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL), said Khader, claiming ignorance about the price of the bulbs. While Dakshina Kannada district has 16,000 such families against 9.72 lakh family in the state, irrespective of BPL and APL card holders availing of the benefit of both LPG connection and kerosene.

The minister said that the motive behind distributing rechargeable bulbs instead of kerosene is the reason that kerosene is being used to light lamps during power cuts.

Elaborating on the various measures taken to expedite the process of receiving applications online for new ration cards, the minister said the Food and Civil Supplies Departments is working in tandem in this regard.

In a recent meeting, Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa has particularly instructed the village accountants (VAs) and revenue inspectors (RIs) through the deputy commissioners to dispose of the applications after speeding up the verification process. A deadline of August 10 has been set for disposing of the applications from rural areas and August 15 for urban areas, he stated.

Khader, who also addressed RIs and VAs through a video conference on Wednesday, said he has directed them to dispose of the applications on priority. Besides, measures will be taken to provide additional data entry operators at Atalji Janasnehi Kendras and additional computers, if any, depending on the availability.

Ahead of the video conference, 20,000 applications were disposed of taking the total to one lakh till now against 17.74 lakh applications received online, Khader said.

Reaction to I-T raid

Reacting to questions over recent Income Tax (I-T) Department raids on the premises owned by Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and his relatives, that continued for the second day on Thursday, Khader termed it as “revenge and blackmail politics from the Centre.”

Khader dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce Lokpal if he really has the will to fight corruption.