The BJP’s call for locking all the gram panchayat and Notified Area Council (NAC) offices in Nuapada district over NFSA card distribution irregularities received public support on Monday.
“Party workers gheraoed and locked all 108 GPs and three NAC offices in the district in protest against the inaction of the district administration and the Government towards inclusion of deserving beneficiaries in the NFSA list,” said BJP Krushak Morcha district presient Sanjay Tiwari.
The BJP had organised demonstrations a few weeks ago and gave a 20-day ultimatum to the district administration to provide ration cards to left-out poor households and conduct an inquiry against malpractices in paddy procurement and, as the period was over, we were forced to gherao GP and NAC offices, he said.
“The Nuapada ADM, who had received our memorandum at Khariar had assured us that steps would be taken within twenty days. He had even said that the district has a balance of 80,000 ration cards for distribution among deserving persons. But no action was taken,” lamented Tiwari.
About 1.28 lakh households (4,85, 306 members) of Nuapada district have already been covered under the NFSA. But the party members alleged that thousands of deserving households are still deprived of their food right due to faulty survey and malpractices adopted by officials.
Meanwhile, the district administration has received more than 1 lakh applications but has not yet decided to whom the balance cards would be distributed. The district needs at least 70,000 cards at present to cover the remaining deserving households.