People of Boden block led by the Congress gheraoed the Panchayat Samiti office of Boden on Thursday and demanded legal action against the officials who included ineligible persons as beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
“The Government officials violated the criteria of selection and allotted ration cards to ineligible persons. Instead of identifying those wilful violators, the block office is now slapping criminal cases against innocent people indiscriminately,” said PCC secretary Adhiraj Panigrahi while addressing the gathering of thousands.
The people, mostly belonging to poor and marginalised sections came in a procession to the block office and demanded that the filing of FIRs and forcing people to return the cost of rice be stopped. The agitators sat in front of the block office for about three hours and shouted slogans against the Government officials and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alleging that the basic right to livelihood has been snatched from them.
The district authorities have already slapped criminal cases against 220 people. Four persons have been forwarded to court. Official source reveal that 1,069 persons have surrendered their ration cards and an amount of Rs 19,80,077 has been recovered.
It is interesting that the amount of money which the beneficiaries had paid at the time of purchasing the ration is not deducted from the recovered amount. “We paid Rs 16.50 per litre of kerosene oil, but they are now not deducting this amount from the final payment. We are paying the full cost of kerosene oil, i.e., Rs 49.94,” said a villager. “In case of rice and wheat also, it is the same,” he added.
“It is not the fault of people; they are innocent; why the Government officials first of all enumerated them as beneficiaries and allotted them ration cardsIJ” asked Adhiraj.
“The criminal action initiated by the government has spread a fear within the poor mass and even the eligible people are now rushing to the block office to return their cards, it is really pathetic” said Adhiraj. “It is time the Government stopped terrorising people in such a manner,” added he.
The agitators also demanded early payment of input subsidy and insurance which have been inordinately delayed. Among others present at the meeting were president of Boden block Congress committee, Janmejaya Singh Deo, District Congress president Ghasiram Majhi, Kamal Charan Tandi, Md Faruk and Gobardhan Suna.