News and pics by Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Jan 31: Saturday January 31 happens to be the last day for the families desirous of acquiring ration cards, both above and below poverty line ones, to apply, to get photographed and to add names left out in the ration cards.

The department has made an arrangement for only 160 people to complete their formalities during the entire day today. As against this, over 600 people rushed to the Nemmadi centre today, giving rise to a chaotic situation at the venue. In the Nemmadi centre, two computers have been provided for catering to the needs of the ration card aspirants from Udupi hobli. Udupi hobli comprises of all the 35 wards of Udupi town and eight villages adjacent to it.

One of the computers installed at the centre is meant for taking photographs and fulfilling other formalities pertaining to card holders belonging to the town while the other is for the eight villages. As the process continued at a snail's pace and the people realized that they might not be able to complete the formalities today, they started to jostle for space, giving rise to din and law order problem.

The police intervened, pacified the mob and controlled the situation. People were seen giving vent to their anguish over the lack of arrangements and frustration over the need to wait the entire day and swearing at the department, not knowing whether their work would be done or not.