Hyderabad, June 16: The government’s move to weed out bogus ration cards has come in for sharp criticism from the BJP and the PRP.
At separate press conferences on Monday, the parties questioned the rationale behind the exercise soon after the elections and asked the government to explain the reasons behind the hastiness to weed out 35 lakh `bogus ration cards’ in the state.
They expressed doubts over the sincerity of officials in completing the process without bias and said officials at the ground level could connive with local political leaders and deprive deserving people of the benefits if they were supporters of non-Congress parties.
State BJP president Bandaru Dattatreya lashed out at the Congress government for ignoring the bogus ration cards issue before the elections. He said, “weren’t there bogus ration cards before the elections? Today, all of a sudden, the CM realises that there are lakhs of bogus ration cards. How can we trust a person whose stance on such an important subject changes within days of coming to power?” he asked.
Dattatreya demanded a detailed enquiry into the issue and wanted the matter to be referred to the food advisory committee before the exercise was started.
“The chief minister’s claim that the exercise was being taken up with an ultimate aim of ensuring that eligible people did not lose out on welfare benefits does not hold water. How can the verification process be completed in three months?,” he asked.
The PRP, meanwhile, demanded scrutiny of the exercise by an all-party committee. PRP legislator Kannababu said cancellation of social security schemes like ration cards, pensions and Indiramma housing scheme should be done in a professional and unbiased manner.
—Agencies–