Iraqi authority rejects decision to cancel ration cards

Religious Authority Representative Abdulmahdi al-Karbalaei Baghdad - Jaafar Nassrawi Iraq's Shiite Religious Authority objected to the government’s decision to cancel the ration cards. Religious Authority Representative Abdulmahdi al-Karbalaei said "the government needs to reconsider the decision because of the negative effect it will have to the poor.” "The ration cards are essential for citizens to afford living and maintaining stable food supplies prices," Karabalei said. He called the cabinet to reconsider this decision, noting that "the corruption suspects on the budget dedicated to cover the food supplies distributed by the ration cards is resulted by the failure of the mechanism of the observatory procedures". "This decision is not studied well as it reflects the failure of the government in confronting the corruption," he concluded. The cabinet decided, during a regular meeting held on Tuesday, to cancel the ration cards from March 2013 and providing financial compensation of 15,000 IQD per month for each ration card carrier.