‘Dead’ shown as beneficiaries of ration meant for poor in Ludhiana, says BJP

Demands CBI probe in the matter or investigation by a sitting judge of the high court

A “dead” man walked away with a ration kit meant for the poor, the local unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed here on Sunday.

Members from city unit of BJP exposing the alleged scam during a press conference in Ludhiana on Sunday. (HT Photo)

Accusing the Congress government of committing a major bungling in the distribution of centrally sponsored ration, state BJP chief spokesperson Anil Sareen said several metric tonnes of ration, meant to be distributed among the poor during the lockdown, have been siphoned off by showing the dead as beneficiaries.

The party has demanded a CBI probe or investigation by a sitting judge of the high court in the matter.

Showing the identity card of a dead person, on whose name ration was distributed in the central constituency of the city, Sareen said persons such as Kanta Rani and Gagandeep Singh, who had died in 2019; Ashok Kumar Sharma of Kashmir Nagar, who had passed away in 2015 and his relative Neeraj (also shown as Ashok Kumar) who had died in 2013, were shown as beneficiates of the ration scheme.

“A Nisha Rani of the same area is not aware that there was a ration card in her name and five persons have been shown as beneficiaries. Nisha is not a stray case. There are many such fake beneficiaries. Besides, details of Aadhaar and ration cards did not match with those of the beneficiaries,” said Sareen.

District BJP president Pushpinder Singhal said a ration kit consisting of 15kg wheat flour and 3kg pulses, meant for three-month consumption, was to be distributed among the poor.

“The ration scam is far bigger than the seed or liquor scams unearthed recently. The Congress regime has usurped ration worth several hundreds of crores allotted from the central pool,” said Singhal.

He added, “A total of 2.12 lakh metric tonne grain, 10,605 metric tonne pulses had arrived, but either the dead or the fake beneficiaries walked away with it while the poor, such as Ajit Kumar Rai, were forced to commit suicide due to non-availability of ration.”