BHUBANESWAR: A division bench of the Orissa High Court (HC) today issued notices to the State Government and Cuttack Municipal Corporation and asked them to file counters on the distribution of BPL ration cards to the identified persons. The bench, comprising Chief Justice BS Chauhan and Justice BN Mohapatra, was acting upon a writ petition filed by Shesadev Nanda, a corporator of Ward 8 of CMC. The petitioner had sought a direction from the court to the authorities to take immediate steps for distribution of ration cards to persons who have been identified as BPL beneficiaries. According to the petitioner, in 2002, a list of 21,673 persons was brought out and they enjoyed the benefits. In 2004, the Government carried out a survey and list of 55,245 beneficiaries was prepared and it was approved in 2006. However, none of them has been provided with the ration cards and cannot be entitled to benefits of welfare schemes such as Rs 2-a-kg rice. In a separate case, former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, who had filed a case in 2003 challenging divestment of National Aluminium Company by the then government, appeared personally before the HC and withdrew the petition.