Over 8.16 lakh ration cards were cancelled after e-KYC; govt says most belonged to deceased persons, govt staff or IT payees.
Opposition alleges genuine poor and small farmers were wrongly targeted, calling the move “anti-poor.”
Treasury benches defend action, saying revised norms and fresh surveys will add new eligible beneficiaries.
Opposition Walks Out Over Odisha Govt’s Ration Card Cancellations
BJD, Congress accuse BJP govt of axing poor families as 8 lakh cards scrapped; state says deletions target only ineligible holders.
Summary
Members of the opposition BJD and Congress walked out of the Odisha Assembly on Saturday in protest against the state government's cancellation of more than eight lakh ration cards belonging to the poor, a charge denied by the state government.
A heated argument between the opposition and treasury benches resulted from the subject being brought up in the Assembly during a debate on the validity of an adjournment motion made by BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik.
The state has invalidated 8,16,056 ration cards through e-KYC verification, according to Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister KC Patra, who denied the accusation.
"Of the total cancelled cards, 6,95,530 belonged to deceased persons, 75,030 to government employees, and 45,496 to Income Tax payees. What is wrong in cancelling ineligible cards?” he asked, adding that the move saved the state Rs 210 crore in a year.
The minister informed the House that the government had set a target to identify 13.5 lakh new beneficiaries in rural areas and 1.5 lakh in urban areas to issue fresh ration cards.
He added that income thresholds have been revised to Rs 15,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 20,000 in urban areas, up from Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 earlier.
Genuine beneficiaries would be identified by door-to-door surveys, and possession of expensive vehicles or opulent homes might be grounds for cancellation.
Senior BJD member Ranendra Pratap Swain started the discussion by accusing the BJP government of taking an "anti-poor" stance and asserting that it had eliminated legitimate beneficiaries under the pretence of surveys or e-KYC.
Swain noted that letters instructing district collectors to cancel cards were sent to recipients who had not lifted rice for six months, owned more than one hectare of land, or made more than Rs 1.2 lakh a year.
"We have noticed that the state government artificially labelled farmers as wealthy, thereby denying them food security benefits," he alleged.
BJD legislator Devi Ranjan Tripathy criticised the government for using landholding criteria to deny ration cards, while Congress members Ashok Das and C S Rajan Ekka said the poor were living in fear of cancellation.
Advertisement
"Is it justified to deny PDS to a farmer having just 1 hectare of land?" Tripathy asked.
BJP lawmakers Ashrit Patnaik, Amar Nayak, and Pratap Chandra Nayak vehemently backed the state government's decision to revoke the ration cards of wealthy and ineligible individuals.
They claimed that the former BJD government had penalised thousands of people in addition to cancelling their ration cards.
"Some people were also sent to jail on charges of availing ration cards fraudulently during the BJD government," BJP member Padma Lochan Panda said.
Protesting the minister’s remarks, BJD and Congress members staged a walkout, raising slogans against the BJP government, which they termed "anti-poor."
Published At: