Only Akalis getting blue cards: Capt
Sunday, 15/05/2016
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday condemned the “selective and discriminatory process” of issuing blue (ration) cards to the people for subsidised food under the National Food Security Act. He said the blue cards must be issued without any discrimination to all deserving people living below poverty line and not on the basis of the colour of their turban.
Amarinder also issued a warning to all officials involved in the process saying they could flout rules at their own risk. “Be fair and just in issuing the blue cards and if you do it merely at the behest of Akalis, let me make it clear to you that you will have to account for it within less than a year,” he said.
“Why is it mandatory to wear a blue turban to get a blue card?” Amarinder asked chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, alleging that partisan means were being adopted by the government to implement the Centre’s scheme.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, the former chief minister said the SAD-BJP government had asked all deputy commissioners to allow registration of 2,000 blue ration cards for each assembly constituency, as recommended by the halqa incharge or the MLA concerned of the ruling alliance. “The halqa incharge/ MLAs have virtually been given absolute authority to issue the cards with obvious intent,” he said.
“All rules and regulations have been thrown to the wind as applications on prescribed pro forma are collected by the halqa incharge/MLAs and are handed over directly to the DCs concerned,” the state Congress president said, adding, “no verification is done and selective and pliable officials are called to verify and cards are being released in bits and pieces”. He said that in Samana constituency, the food minister, as a “special case” had directed food officials to make 5,000 such cards.
