Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31 -- At least 20,000 government employees have surrendered their ration cards after the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FS&CW) Department threatened action against ineligible beneficiaries of public distribution system (PDS) in Odisha.

The state government had set January 31 as the deadline for ineligible beneficiaries to surrender their ration cards.

Till date, as many as 20,000 government employees have surrendered their ration cards. The number was 12,000 two days ago, said FS&CW Minister Krushna Chandra Patra today.

"Contractual employees having monthly income up to Rs 12,000 need not surrender their ration cards. As per the National Food Security Act (NFSA), people having monthly income of Rs 15,000 or above...