A large number of women along with their children reached the District Collectorate here to lodge their protest against cancellation of their ration cards.
They also staged a demonstration while accusing the district administration of harassing the poor people in the name of verification and alleged that they were facing a crisis of survival since they were not getting ration from the fair price shops.
Meanwhile, Additional Collector Sanjay Agrawal assured that they would be provided ration if verification of their ration card was not done and for those whose ration cards have been cancelled can put their claims at their respective zone offices. No eligible household will be deprived of benefit but ineligible people would not be entertained, said Agrawal.
Women including elderly women who were hardly able to walk, women with their infants and men from Ram Nagar Gudiyari, Guru Govind Singh Ward, Pandhri etc reached the Collectorate and raised the issue with Agrawal during the Jandarshan programme. They shouted slogans against the administration and accused it of being biased in verification of ration cards.
They alleged that people belonging to BJP or near and dear ones of BJP leaders are being exempted while ration card of other people were being cancelled by the verification teams.
The residents were supported by Asangathit Mazdoor Sangh State president Dileep Chouhan, Congress Jhuggi Jhopdi cell district president Madeen Khan and a number of other leaders.They said that all the protestors belonged to economically weaker sections of the society and eligible for ration card. However, the verification teams had cancelled their cards without verifying the details, they alleged.
Most of the families were dependent on ration distributed by the fair price shops but they had been denied food grains from these ration shops for past two months. If this continued, their families will die of hunger, they lamented. The protesters left the premises on assurance of the officers but threatened to continue and intensify their protest if their demands are not considered.