BJD, Congress walk out of Odisha Assembly over mass ration card cuts

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Opposition BJD and Congress members on Saturday walked out of the Odisha Assembly in protest against the cancellation of over eight lakh ration cards of poor people, a charge denied by the state government.

 

The issue was raised in the Assembly through a debate on the admissibility of an adjournment motion moved by BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik, leading to a heated exchange between opposition and treasury benches.

 

Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister KC Patra rejected the allegation, saying the state had so far cancelled 8,16,056 ration cards through e-KYC verification.

 

"Of the total cancelled cards, 6,95,530 belonged to deceased persons, 75,030 to government employees, and 45,496 to Income Tax payees. What is wrong in cancelling ineligible cards? he asked, adding that the move saved the state Rs 210 crore in a year.

 

The minister informed the House that the the government had set a target to identify 13.5 lakh new beneficiaries in rural areas and 1.5 lakh in urban areas to issue fresh ration cards.

 

He added that income thresholds have been revised to Rs 15,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 20,000 in urban areas, up from Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 earlier.

 

Door-to-door surveys would identify genuine beneficiaries, while ownership of luxury houses or expensive cars could be grounds for cancellation.

 

Initiating the debate, senior BJD member Ranendra Pratap Swain accused the BJP government of adopting an "anti-poor" attitude and claimed that the administration removed genuine beneficiaries under the guise of surveys or e-KYC.

 

Swain pointed out that the letters were sent to district collectors directing them to cancel cards if beneficiaries had not lifted rice for six months, owned more than one hectare of land, or earned above Rs 1.2 lakh annually.

 

"We have noticed that the state government artificially labelled farmers as wealthy, thereby denying them food security benefits," he alleged.

 

BJD legislator Devi Ranjan Tripathy criticised the government for using landholding criteria to deny ration cards, while Congress members Ashok Das and C S Rajan Ekka said the poor were living in fear of cancellation.

 

"Is it justified to deny PDS to a farmer having just 1 hectare of land," Tripathy asked.

 

BJP legislators Ashrit Patnaik, Amar Nayak and Pratap Chandra Nayak strongly defended the state government's act of cancelling the ration cards of ineligible and affluent persons.

 

They alleged that the previous BJD government had not only cancelled ration cards of some thousands of people, but also imposed penalty on them.

 

"Some people were also sent to jail on charge of availing ration cards fraudulently during the BJD government," BJP member Padma Lochan Panda said.

 

Protesting the minister's remarks, BJD and Congress members staged a walkout, raising slogans against the BJP government, which they termed "anti-poor.