Won’t remove any family from ration scheme: CM Mann

Even as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said no family would be deleted from the list of beneficiaries getting foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, the Opposition parties accused the AAP government of succumbing to the Centre’s pressure.

The Punjab Government had issued a notification last week amending the Punjab Food Security Rules, 2016, listing the criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of beneficiaries.

A political controversy had erupted last month after the Centre asked the Punjab Government to verify antecedents of 11 lakh “suspicious” beneficiaries under the scheme. Close to 1.50 crore people in the state are covered under the plan.

Addressing reporters here, Mann assured that no ration card in the state would be deleted.“We have sought six months’ time from the Union Government in wake of the recent floods to verify these cards,” he said.

Mann pointed out the “absurdity of penalising entire families when just one member may be fulfilling one of the criterion”.He said “only individual beneficiaries would be deleted” if they did not meet the criteria.

Reacting to it, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP government of giving in to BJP-led Union Government’s pressure. He said due to it, 11 lakh beneficiaries faced exclusion from the food security programme. “Modi proposes, Mann disposes,” Warring said expressing his disappointment with the state government.

The Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, too hit out at the AAP government. “Now, they’ve not only gone back on their word but have adopted the Centre’s anti-poor criteria,” Bajwa said.