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Bid to weed out only ineligible BPL card holders: Siddaramaiah
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah denies claims of canceling BPL ration cards, stating efforts focus on removing ineligible recipients to protect eligible beneficiaries.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has denied allegations that the state government has issued orders to cancel Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards for eligible beneficiaries, clarifying that current efforts aim to weed out ineligible recipients. The clarification comes amid accusations from opposition leaders, who claim that the government is unfairly targeting the poor.
Speaking to reporters in Bagalkot on Sunday, Siddaramaiah addressed concerns surrounding the cancellation of BPL cards. “We are taking steps to weed out ineligible persons from the pool of BPL card beneficiaries. This step will help the eligible beneficiaries get all the benefits. We have found that several government employees and taxpayers have obtained BPL cards and have not returned them despite several appeals,” he said.
He added that no decision to cancel eligible BPL cards has been taken. “The department of food is examining a proposal to urge all ineligible persons to return cards or to cancel them. But no final decision has been taken,” he said.
Responding to a direct query on whether the government issued orders to cancel BPL cards, Siddaramaiah dismissed the question as incorrect. “There is no proposal to cancel BPL cards. Who can cancel those cards? We are only taking steps to see that only eligible beneficiaries get the benefits. I want to clarify that while steps will be taken to cancel BPL cards of ineligible persons, the cards of eligible beneficiaries will stay. Our only concern is that the deserving should not be deprived of benefits and that government benefits should not be abused by the undeserving,” he said.
The chief minister’s statements came in the wake of accusations from BJP leaders, particularly former minister and Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar, who criticised the Congress government for its handling of ration cards. Speaking in Mangaluru on Saturday, Kumar accused the government of cancelling 11 lakh ration cards in two months.
“This is the first time in the history of Karnataka that the government has cancelled the ration cards to such an extent after giving a speech that it is pro-poor. We are going to fight that the ration card should not be cancelled,” Kumar declared.
He also raised concerns about the lack of clarity on decisions affecting districts under the Kasturi Rangan report, which includes areas such as Sakleshpur, Belur and Mudigere. “The government has not taken a clear decision till now. This is causing problems to people’s lives in a big way,” he added.
Reacting to the BJP’s criticism, Karnataka food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa said that the revision of ration cards was initiated under the previous BJP government. “It was the BJP government that introduced a rule that those paying income tax and owning cards should be issued with APL cards,” he said.
Muniyappa added, “Karnataka has the highest number of BPL cards in south India. Out of the 6.5 crore population, we have issued cards to 4.5 crore people. Since there was a perception that many ineligible individuals had BPL cards, the BJP government itself framed rules for revision of ration cards.”
He assured that eligible beneficiaries will not lose access to subsidies. “There is no shortage of funds to provide ration in the state. During the revision, those who were not eligible for BPL cards were shifted to APL. However, applications for APL cards were not cancelled. Not a single APL card has been revoked,” Muniyappa said.
He added that while subsidies for APL cardholders were temporarily halted due to underutilisation, they will resume upon completion of the revision. “APL card holders were provided food grains at subsidised rates, but many did not utilise the benefit. Therefore, subsidies for APL cardholders have been temporarily stopped. Once the revision is complete, if APL cardholders request subsidies, we will definitely provide them,” he said.
Siddaramaiah also addressed claims by opposition leader R Ashok that the BJP had been cleared of allegations of taking a 40% commission on government contracts during the Basavaraj Bommai administration. He said that the investigation was initiated based on a complaint from D Kempanna, president of the State Contractors’ Association.
“When an accused is released due to lack of evidence, it does not mean that the murder has not been committed. It may mean that the witnesses did not depose properly before the courts,” the CM said.
Siddaramaiah reiterated his allegation that the BJP attempted to poach 50 Congress MLAs by offering ₹50 crore each. “They tried to engineer such defections, but failed,” he said.
