Restore cancelled ration cards of BPL families: BJP

December 21, 2014 03:19 am | Updated 03:19 am IST - Shivamogga:

Members of the Backward Classes wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a protest here on Friday seeking restoration of ration cards that had been cancelled during a verification drive launched by the officials of the Department of Food and Civil Supplies.

Addressing the protest meet, K.S. Arun Kumar, district unit president of the wing, said that although the Congress government in the State had launched the Anna Bhagya scheme to provide rice at Rs. 1 a per kg. to below the poverty line (BPL) families, many such families had remained out of the purview of the scheme owing to the cancellation of their ration cards.

Of the 3,91,175 ration cards in the district, the officials concerned had cancelled 80,125 ration cards in the name of verification. The initiative to link ration cards with election photo identity card (EPIC) numbers had been launched to weed out fake ration cards, if any. As the exercise was executed online, the ration cards of poor families members of which had no knowledge of computer usage were being cancelled for not providing the EPIC number. The government should direct the officials concerned to restore the cancelled ration cards by collecting the EPIC numbers through a door-to-door visit for the puspose, he said.

He expressed displeasure over the alleged slow pace of implementation of Basava, Ashraya and Dr. Ambedkar housing schemes in the State. More than 1.39 lakh applications submitted by the targeted beneficiaries of these schemes in the State had remained pending. As a major chunk of the applicants belonged to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribe and Backward Classes, it was the responsibility of the government to clear their applications expeditiously, he said.

The protesters submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

Functionaries of the BJP S.V. Krishnamurthy, S.B. Sumithra and Ranganath took part in the protest.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.