Government must be having valid reasons behind suspending over 11 lakh ration cards in State calling them bogus or forged as they were found non-Aadhaar compliant. However, the same has apparently provided JVM supremo and ex-Chief Minister Babulal Marandi much food for anguish and criticism for the Government.
Marandi has on Sunday given Government ultimatum till November 15 for providing food grains to the left-out poor by organising ration camps, or to get ready to face statewide agitations thereafter.
“The irony is that the Government has started claiming even its failures as achievements. It claims that over 11 lakh of so called forged or bogus ration cards have been deleted from records. The fact is that its own machinery of seeding Aadhaar or providing fresh Aadhaar cards to those citizens has failed miserably, resulting around 30 lakh family members dependent on those over 11 lakh ration cards have been wiped out of food security system. This is how government is saving money at the cost of millions of lives living in rural areas,” claimed Marandi.
The leader also came down heavily on Government’s move of launching Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in food grains to beneficiaries in State from Nagri block of Ranchi district saying that it appeared completely uprooted from ground realities of the demographics of the State. He also mocked Chief Minister Raghubar Das’ ongoing trip to the Czech Republic and Japan in a bid to lure investments saying that the fruits of earlier such trips had not appeared coming yet.
Notably, the government claimed deletion of over 11 lakh ration cards from system in last three years calling them as fake or forged after Aadhaar seeding of ration cards were made compulsory to obtain benefits of government plans. The government also claimed that it checked ‘leakage’ of over Rs 225 Crores in PDS system through compulsory Aadhaar seeding.
“Even one of the senior-most State cabinet ministers has written to the government requesting to go slow on DBT in food grains as similar experiments by Government of India in couple of Union Territories (UTs) have been struggling.
Moreover, people can’t be left suffering only because they were not having an Aadhaar card. Their food security is more important than any cards. This is why I request government to provide food grains to all needy poor through special ration camps throughout the State before or by November 15. If it doesn’t happen, we will launch series of statewide campaign and will ensure stalling of government works,” warned Marandi.