Apply for ration cards online in Karnataka

Do not mind guys. But, the ‘Government maintained Ration cards Online’ website says this after you submit all the information. “Issue of new ration cards is suspended till the completion of the exercise to identify and weed out ineligible ration cards. Soon after the completion of the exercise, online submission of application for new ration cards will be enabled.” WTF!!! So, they want us to believe that they are going to filter the fake ration cards. Yeah, they may, within the next 120 years, when Iris based ration cards will be available. Subscribe to our mailing list people. I will let you know when the site works again. Browse around other articles.

A ration card is mandatory for every family in India. It enables the government to know the statistics of how the families are, what their economic status is(below poverty line or above poverty line) and other metrics like age, gender and education can be pulled out from the database. This simple and easy reference tool, named as ration card is also used by other private and government agencies like LPG gas supply and electricity boards respectively. All in all, a ration card is mandatory for every citizen no matter what. But, many of us skip the ordeal of applying for a ration card, as the process itself is cumbersome.

As with every other process related to Indian government, applying for a ration card too is quite a painful process. A newly married person, if he is shifting to a new house, should get a NEW ration card with the name of his wife and himself in it. In order to apply for it, he has to….will give it out point-wise.

Remove his name from the earlier ration card, which his parents had taken. There is a process here too:

If married and moving out, take your marriage certificate to MRO or other government officer with the authority to agree that you are married.
Fill a form which specifies that your name can be removed from the already existing ration card of your father.
Wait until the government officials come to your house for the verification process.
They may ask for several other documents, which we do not normally have, so pay a bribe.
Wait for the new leaflet which says that your name will be removed in the next iteration.

Now, take this permission leaflet to the place where you are applying for a new ration card.
Fill a form there requesting for a new ration card. Attach the earlier taken ‘Removal of name’ leaflet to the application.
Also attach the verification documents like, your license, electricity bill, telephone bill with your address in it, rental agreement if you are in a rental house.
Submit the form with a nominal challan amount paid duly in the ration card office itself.
Go home and wait for the officials to arrive for verification.

Once the verification process completes, you will pretty soon get your new ration card. While the process looks tiring, it brings in a new exhilaration once it gets completed.

Now, displacing all this mundane process, Government of Karnataka has taken a leap ahead and moved this entire process online. This approach enables the civil supplies department to weed out the illegal ration cards that are rampant in Karnataka.

The process is quite simple and less tiring. You can Apply for ration cards online through Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department website, http://ahara.kar.nic.in All you need to have in your hands is, your electricity bill and a few more details, like your ward number, ward name and main areas of your ward.

You may find it hard to get to this link, as it’s placed in a marquee on the home page itself and it’s moving. So, stay on alert at the home page itself and click on the link. I can not give you the original URL itself, as it gets called in a pop-up. So, disable pop-up blockers and access the website.

Make use of the FAQ section in the pop-up, Help link does not work, yet. May be in a few days, it will come live.

Until then, use your imagination.