E-Paper
Won’t allow Centre to snatch rights of Punjab’s people: Bhagwant Mann
At present, 1.53-crore beneficiaries in the state get ration, but the Centre wants to stop the ration supply for 55 lakh people. You may be on that list. I will not allow this to happen, says Bhagwant Mann, Punjab chief minister
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday reiterated his accusation that the BJP-led central government was attempting to cancel the ration cards of 55 lakh underprivileged people in the state, asserting that he would resist the move.
In an open letter addressed to the people of Punjab, Mann accused the Centre of issuing an order to halt the free ration to these people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). “At present, 1.53-crore beneficiaries in the state get ration, but the Centre wants to stop the ration supply for 55 lakh people. You may be on that list. I will not allow this to happen,” he wrote in the open letter shared by the AAP Punjab on X, accusing the BJP of “ration theft after vote theft. He also called the move a “direct attack” on the food platters or the poor, workers, farmers, and other common people of the state.
CM Mann’s open letter marks his second attack on the Centre within a week regarding the issue of e-KYC (know your customer) verification of beneficiaries availing the free ration facility under the NFSA by September 30.
On Saturday, Mann rejected the move, stating that his government would not allow any deletions. Responding Mann and his ministers’ allegations, Union food minister Pralhad Joshi stated that the Centre had not deleted any beneficiary, but merely asked the Punjab government to recheck them based on its inclusion criteria to ensure that deserving claimants get the benefit.
On Monday, Mann alleged that since July, the central government had stopped ration supply to 23 lakh people in Punjab under the pretext of incomplete e-KYC. He further stated that another 32 lakh people were at the risk of being removed from the list of beneficiaries by September on the grounds that they are no longer underprivileged. “Just think about the irony. People of Punjab grow food and feed the entire country, yet today, the central government wants to take away even a morsel of bread from them,” he added.
Questioning the criteria used by the Centre to determine eligibility under the scheme, the CM accused the BJP of not understanding the ground realities of the state. He said, “The BJP says people with cars, jobs, or over 25 acres of land are not poor. But if one person in a family works or owns a car, does that make the entire family rich?”
He further accused the central government of taking revenge from Punjab on one or the other pretext, saying, “They are sitting in AC rooms in Delhi and keeping an account of the meals of poor people of villages of the state.”
The CM said that the state government had already verified 1.29-crore beneficiaries, and the remaining verification would be completed in next six months. Mann added that he had sought time from the central government and the state government’s team would go door-to-door for verification.
