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| Entire Opposition grill govt over shortage of ration | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 2: The Lower House of State Legislature today witnessed uproar over discrepancies in the lists of Below Poverty Line (BPL) people and shortage of ration in different parts of the State.
The vociferous Opposition parties comprising Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) tried to corner the Government particularly Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Qamar Ali Akhoon over, what they alleged, defective Below Poverty Line (BPL) lists and shortage of ration across the State.
It all began when PDP MLA from Shangus assembly segment, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain charged the Minister for CAPD with "misleading" the House and giving "wrong information".
replying to the clubbed questions of Peerzada Mansoor Ahmed, BJP MLAs Ghuru Ram Bhagat and Bharat Bhushan in Legislative Assembly during question hour this morning.
The PDP MLA got infuriated when the Minister told that 6061 ration cards have been issued to BPL families in Shangus Constituency. Peerzada Mansoor said, "No mind has been applied before finalizing the lists of BPL families. People from neighbouring constituencies have been included in the BPL lists prepared for Shangus constituency." He alleged the Minister had given the "wrong information," besides misleading the House.
Expressing resentment over shortage of ration to the people of their respective constituencies, the BJP and JKNPP MLAs also shared the concern and came down heavily upon the Government for its alleged failure to streamline the ration distribution system. With the members of PDP, BJP and JKNPP were on their feet, it led to noisy scenes in the House.
Akhoon asserted that re-verification of BPL lists in each District, being carried out by authorized Committees, headed by respective DDCs, was going on in full swing. "The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had directed for constitution of these committees for re-verification of BPL lists and the process is going on in full swing," he said.
He however, admitted that some of deserving people are still not being covered under the BPL lists.
Though the Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone tried to pacify the opposition benches, the JKNPP MLA, Balwant Singh Mankotia shouted, "Yeh Garib Logo Ka Masla Hai…(This is an issue of poor people)."
Seeking half an hour discussion over the issue, Chaman Lal Gupta, Leader of BJP Legislature Party, said "During our first meeting, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had admitted discrepancies in the BPL lists. When the National Conference (NC) was in opposition it had said that the BPL lists would be prepared again."
Sharing concern with the legislators, the Speaker accepted the demand of Chaman Lal Gupta and said that half-an-hour discussion would be allowed after question hour tomorrow over the issue.
Earlier, replying to the supplimentaries, the Minister for CAPD said that the Government has decided to enhance the ration to 50 Kgs against the existing scale of 35 Kgs per ration card.
He said the State was receiving a central quota at the scale of 35 Kgs per ration card, but considering the dwindled local agriculture production in the wake of long dry spell, experienced in the State, the State Government has decided to bear the expenses on the enhanced scale. |
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