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Odisha Assembly: There was a huge uproar in the Odisha Assembly on Saturday. There was a heated debate between the opposition and the ruling party. The opposition boycotted the House.
Odisha Assembly: There was a huge uproar in the Odisha Assembly on Saturday. There was a heated debate between the opposition and the ruling party. Members of the opposition BJD and Congress boycotted the Odisha Assembly in protest against the cancellation of more than eight lakh ration cards of poor people. The issue was raised in the Assembly during the debate on the adjournment motion moved by BJD Chief Whip Pramila Malik, following which there was a heated debate between the opposition and the ruling party. Rejecting the allegation, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister KC Patra said the state has so far canceled 8,16,056 ration cards through e-KYC verification. He said that out of the total cards cancelled, 6,95,530 cards were of deceased, 75,030 were of government employees and 45,496 were of income tax payers. That said, what’s wrong with canceling ineligible cards? He said that this step has saved the state Rs 210 crore in a year.
BJP accused of adopting anti-poor attitude
The minister informed the House that the government has set a target to identify 13.5 lakh new beneficiaries in rural areas and 1.5 lakh in urban areas for issuing new ration cards. He said that the income limit has been revised to Rs 15,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 20,000 in urban areas, which was earlier Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. Door-to-door surveys will identify genuine beneficiaries, while ownership of luxury homes or expensive cars could be grounds for cancellation. Initiating the debate, senior BJD member Ranendra Pratap Swain accused the BJP government of adopting an anti-poor attitude and claimed that the administration has removed genuine beneficiaries under the guise of survey or e-KYC. Swain said letters were sent to district collectors, instructing them to cancel the cards if beneficiaries have not picked rice for six months, own more than one hectare of land, or earn more than Rs 1.2 lakh annually.
Farmers are being deprived of food security
He alleged that the state government has declared farmers artificially rich, thereby depriving them of food security benefits. BJD MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathi criticized the government for using land ownership criteria to deny ration cards, while Congress members Ashok Das and CS Rajan Ekka said poor people were living in fear of cancellation. Tripathi asked whether it is fair to deny PDS to a farmer with only 1 hectare of land? BJP MLAs Ashrit Patnaik, Amar Nayak and Pratap Chandra Nayak strongly defended the state government’s action of canceling ration cards of ineligible and affluent persons. He alleged that the previous BJD government had not only canceled the ration cards of thousands of people but also imposed fines on them. BJP member Padma Lochan Panda said that during the BJD government, some people were also sent to jail on charges of fraudulently obtaining ration cards.
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