The Telangana Congress has complained to Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana Vikas Raj that the ruling party was insisting on the submission of voter ID cards for the selection of beneficiaries under Gruhalaxmi and Dalit Bandhu schemes and otherwise their names were being kept on hold.
G. Niranjan, chairman and P. Rajesh Kumar, convenor of the Telangana Congress Election Coordination Committee said that generally the beneficiaries are selected on the basis of guidelines given by the government and take the ration card for authentication. They said submission of voter ID cards was not necessary and it’s a violation of norms to seek voter cards. However, the officials are threatening people saying they will not be responsible if their names are missing from the final list of beneficiaries due to non-submission of voter ID cards. Officials claim that they have oral instructions from the top to this effect, the Congress leaders said.
They said the Election Commission allows the voters to cast votes on the production of any approved identity card in lieu of a voter ID card. The MLAs concerned are finalising the list of 1,100 Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries from each Assembly constituency and directly denying the scheme by asking how can people be beneficiaries if they don’t have voter ID card. “The ruling party hatched a plan to take the details of beneficiaries of various schemes and their voter IDs to influence them to vote in their favour under the plea as they have provided so and so benefits to them.”
The Congress leaders also said that earlier they had brought to the CEO’s attention the distribution of 11,700 double-bedroom houses in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad at eight centres by the Ministers and MLAs.
