Former MLA and BJP State vice-president P. Vishnu Kumar Raju has attacked the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government for making the white ration card mandatory for beneficiaries to avail of various welfare schemes.
“The monthly income of a person should not exceed ₹10,000 in rural areas and ₹12,000 in urban areas in order to be eligible to obtain a white ration card. This means that the daily income should not exceed ₹333 in rural and ₹400 in urban areas, which is ridiculously low and unrealistic,” Mr. Raju said.
Mr. Raju noted that the Centre has fixed an annual income of ₹8 lakh for a person to be eligible for identification under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category. In A.P., the white ration card was being cancelled if a person’s income crossed ₹1.44 lakh a year, Mr. Raju alleged, and demanded that the ceiling should be increased to ₹3 lakh in urban and ₹2.5 lakh in rural areas.
Referring to the rule that the ration card would be revoked if the beneficiary uses more than 300 units of electricity a month, Mr. Raju called for increasing the limit to 600 units. He said that people were under the apprehension that the State government was in the process of phasing out white ration cards.
“People of A.P. are not utilising the Mudra loans which enable small traders to avail of loans up to ₹10 lakh, without any security, as they fear that their ration card would be cancelled and they would have to forgo the welfare schemes if they take Mudra loans,” Mr. Raju said. He demanded that the State government come out with a statement that the ration card would not be cancelled even if income tax returns were filed.
