Bengaluru, Jul 22 (IANS): Food grains would be delivered at home to ration card holders in containment zones in the city to prevent crowding at fair price shops amid Covid-19 scare, an official said on Wednesday.

"As movement of people and vehicles is restricted to prevent the virus spread in containment areas, food grain kits will be delivered to all ration card holders at their respective homes," a state Food and Civil Supplies Department official told IANS here.

Though the lockdown was lifted across the city earlier in the day, restrictions on the people in the containment zones continued.

"Fair price shops for distributing foodgrains in containment zones will also remain shut to prevent BPL (below poverty line) and APL (above poverty line) ration card holders crowding and violating social distancing," said the official.

Of the 1,423 active containment zones across the city, 791 are in western suburbs, followed by 242 in the east, 124 in northeast and 118 in the south.

According to the department official, the city has about 10 lakh BPL ration cards, 5 lakh APL cards and 2 lakh Antyodaya cards for buying monthly quota of food grains from the public distribution system (PDS) shops.

By linking Aadhaar cards with ration cards, the department has weeded out several fake card holders to streamline distribution of food to the needy and deserving.

"Those who do not have any ration card will also be supplied food grains as per their need on registering with their nearest fair price shops," the official added.

Of the new Covid cases on Tuesday, 1,714 were reported from Bengaluru, taking its tally to 34,943, including 26,746 active after 7,476 were discharged so far, with 520 in the last 24 hours.