Cancel ration cards issued to ineligible persons: UP Assembly Speaker

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana on Friday directed the state government to cancel ration cards issued to ineligible persons after a probe into it.

The matter was raised by Samajwadi Party MLA from the Gosaiganj constituency in Ayodhya Abhay Singh during the Question Hour.

After the MLA said he was not satisfied with minister Laxmi Narayan Chowdhary's response to the matter raised by him, the speaker issued the direction.

The SP MLA asked if the government was aware about a delay in issuing new ration cards in the state by officers of the Food and Civil Supplies Department.

He also sought to know from the government how many new ration cards have been issued and how many applications are pending in Ayodhya district from 2018 to December 22, 2022.

A written reply to the member's queries came from the chief minister. It was stated that a total of 1,33,03,625 ration cards have been issued in the state against the applications received between April 1, 2018 and December 2022.

A total of 1,44,628 ration cards have been issued against the applications received during this period in Ayodhya district and currently only 658 ration card applications are pending, it said.

The number of ration cards pending at the state level is 13,31,130, it added.

Raising a supplementary question, Singh said that many ineligible persons were issued ration cards while the needy do not have them.

"Will the government get it probed?" he asked.

In reply to him, Minister Chowdhary said that if he had any specific complaint, it would be investigated.

Expressing dissatisfaction over this, Singh said this is a statewide problem, following which the speaker asked the minister to conduct a general inquiry into it and cancel the ration cards issued to ineligible ones.