BANGALORE: Opposition members in the Assembly on Wednesday castigated the government for making it mandatory for people seeking ration cards to send an SMS containing details of their Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and Aadhar card.
Speaking on the demand for grants of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, JD(S) MLA Y S V Datta urged the government to drop the idea as many of them are poor and illiterate.
He urged the government to clarify how a person without an EPIC or electricity connection can get a ration card in the state.
Taking a dig at the BJP, Datta said the then government had issued temporary ration cards in 2009 to gain political mileage.
Demanding an end to recycling of rice, he charged that officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department have not seized rice in rice mills whose owners had produced bills saying that they had purchased rice from Uttar Pradesh. He said the rice supplied by the government under the Anna Bagya scheme was unfit for human consumption.
Referring to the recent seizure of 3,000 bags of rice in Mysore, he wanted to know why the government failed to initiate action against the Food and Civil Supplies Department’s deputy director.
“He is more powerful than the government,” he said.
PDS Rice in Blackmarket
Former food and civil supplies minister and BJP MLA Jeevaraj charged that the rice distributed under Anna Bagya scheme is sold in blackmarket. He said the government should introduce a bio-metric system to maintain accountability in the distribution of rice and kerosene.
He demanded that the government fill up vacancies in the Weights and Measures Department.
JD(S) member S R Mahesh said that in several places people are paying `50 to send an SMS to avail ration cards. Congress MLA S Ramesh Kumar said the government should cancel the licences of fair price shops supplying bogus ration cards.