Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 29: Senior Congress leaders today urged the J&K UT Administration not to deny PDS food grains/ ration to the beneficiaries.
Former minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla claimed that with a growing number of people without ration cards finding it difficult to get free food during the COVID-19 crisis, Govt should temporarily universalise their public distribution system (PDS).
Interacting with aggrieved people of Sanjay Nagar in Jammu South, Bhalla sought clear guidelines to ensure no one remains without ration. Give free grains even to those who don’t have a ration card either as part of a Central Government scheme or the other. People who don’t have a ration card or even Aadhaar card should be eligible for free dry ration. These include nomadic communities as well and migrant labourers settled in J&K, he added.
Bhalla claimed that only 40 per cent of the consumers have yet got Aadhaar entries done while the rest are pending for the biometric purpose with the concerned department. “It means that sixty percent of the persons will be left fending for themselves without any ration at this critical juncture,” he said while demanding strict action against the guilty.
He urged the Lt Governor to look into matter personally and direct the concerned authorities for look into matter and suspend or put this decision on hold till the present pandemic crisis is over.
Former minister and senior Congress leader, Mula Ram and DCC president Jammu Rural, Hari Singh Chib strongly criticized the government for allegedly providing PDS ration only to those people who have got Aadhaar cards in this critical time when the second wave of COVID pandemic has already made the life of people miserable.
In a joint statement senior Congress leaders said that this decision of the Government is without any justification especially in view of the fact that only 40 % of the consumers have yet got Aadhaar entries done while the rest are pending for the biometric purpose with the concerned department. “It means that 60 % of the persons will be left fending for themselves without any ration at this critical juncture,” they said.
They demanded that the Government must provide ration to common masses as per the past practice. They said that according to the aforesaid authorities only 40 % consumers Aadhaar entries have been done for the biometric purpose of ration distribution by the CAPD authorities, with some necessary corrections still pending in most of the circles in case of the rest 60% consumers. Mula Ram and Chib appealed to the administration to suspend and put on hold the aforesaid decision at least till the situation reverts back to normal.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
