The Congress attacked the Yogi Adityanath government for its latest order revising the eligibility criteria for the ration cardholders. The party said, that while the BJP bragged about the free ration scheme during the election, now that they have returned to power they are snatching food from the poor.
Addressing a press conference at the Delhi, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the “free ration scheme” was waived in face of every question on inflation, state of the economy, and high unemployment rate.
The Uttar Pradesh government, she said, through the district magistrates has issued orders saying that people who have even a motorcycle or run a poultry business or have a diary, any piece of land, or even a roof on their heads are no longer eligible to hold ration cards. They have been asked to return the ration card and in case they don’t the market cost of the food grains given to them will be retrospectively collected from them.
Ms. Shrinate asked, “The one question that comes to my mind is during the middle of a pandemic even if someone had a motorcycle but had lost their jobs and had no income how did the government expect them to be fed?”
It is equally surprising that the onus is being put on the ration card holders rather than the officials who issued them. Ms. Shrinate said, “Let us for a minute assume that ration cards were given to some people who do not qualify for it but who gave these ration cards? Were they not given by officials of the Uttar Pradesh government and should they not be held accountable before penalising the poor people for allegedly faulty ration cards?”
The 2013 Food Security Act lays down the percentage of people to be legally covered by food security in each State. In Uttar Pradesh 79.5% in rural areas and 64.4% people in urban areas stand to benefit from the Food security act. The April 2022 food grain bulletin released by the government of India states that 15.20 crore people in Uttar Pradesh should be beneficiaries of the Food security act.
