Restore cancelled ration cards of BPL families: BJP

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.