MYSURU: Since a large number of people are yet to link their ration cards with their respective unique identification (UID) or Aadhar numbers, food supplies for each month are not being exhausted entirely. Nearly 70,000 quintals from the last month's quota of rice remains with the authorities, since they were unable to distribute it to those people who have not linked their ration and UID cards.At a review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme early this week, which was chaired by Mysuru zilla panchayat president Nayima Sultana, deputy director of the food and civil supplies department K Rameshwarappa said that the department had distributed ration cards to 24 lakh people in Mysuru in 2013.Following the directions issued by the government in 2016 to link the ration and Aadhar cards, the number of ration card holders dropped to 18 lakh in December 2016. "This is because entries of duplicate ration cards were deleted. Still, there are a lot of people who remain outside the scheme. In December, 90,000 people got their ration and Aadhar cards linked," Rameshwarappa said.He added, "Our department has lodged criminal cases against 107 fair price shops for indulging in irregular practices."Fodder to be procured from BallariAddressing the problem of acute shortage of fodder for cattle in rural areas in the district, deputy director of the animal husbandry and veterinary sciences department PM Prasad Murthy said, "Fodder will be procured for Mysuru from Ballari." Murthy added, "Of the 327 tonnes of fodder that have been procured, 102 tonnes have been distributed to the drought-hit villages in the district."Murthy said that the department had opened fodder banks in five locations across the district. Pointing out that the demand for fodder would increase in the summer, he said, "There are around five lakh cattle in Mysuru, and the daily requirement for fodder is 4,000 quintals. In terms of distribution of fodder to villages, Mysuru is ahead of all other districts in the state."Murthy added that each household would be given a fodder card to collect dried hay from the bank, to ensure equal distribution of fodder to all farmers.ZP CEO P Shivashankar, and chairpersons of the standing committees Beerihundi Basavanna, Dayananda Murthy, Chief Planning Officer Prabhu Swamy were in attendance at the meeting.KDP meeting highlights Agriculture department deputy director Somasundar said that the district suffered 45 % of the kharif crop and 30 % of the rabi crop were damaged as a result of drought. He said that the department had sought Rs 91 crore from the government to provide compensation to the farmersHorticulture department has finalized 23 farmers and seven officers to get training for making banana stem juice at Central Food Technological Research Institute from next week. The trained farmers will later have an agreement with CFTRI in producing the juice

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