The Odisha Assembly erupted in sharp exchanges on Friday as the ruling BJP and opposition BJD, and Congress clashed over the cancellation of ration cards.
Opposition leaders accused the government of pursuing anti-poor policies. Senior BJD legislator Ranendra Pratap Swain argued that the administration removed genuine beneficiaries under the guise of surveys. Moreover, he pointed to letters sent to district collectors directing them to cancel cards if beneficiaries had not lifted rice for six months, owned more than one hectare of land, or earned above Rs 1.2 lakh annually. Swain alleged that the government artificially labelled farmers as wealthy, thereby denying them food security benefits.
Congress members Ashok Das and C.S. Raazan Ekka echoed similar concerns. They said poor families were trapped in a “ration card maze” and lived in fear of exclusion. In addition, BJD legislator Devi Ranjan Tripathy criticised the government for calling beneficiaries “suspicious” in official letters and demanded clarity on eligibility criteria.
BJP legislators countered the charges and insisted that the cancellations targeted ineligible beneficiaries such as deceased persons, government employees, and income-tax payers. Furthermore, Food and Supplies Minister Krushna Chandra Patra delivered a strong rebuttal. He stated that 8,16,456 ration cards had been cancelled through e-KYC verification, including 6,95,530 belonging to deceased persons, 75,030 to government employees, and 45,496 to taxpayers. He added that the move saved the state Rs 210 crore annually and curbed corruption.
Patra also announced that the government set a target to identify 13.5 lakh new beneficiaries in rural areas and 1.5 lakh in urban areas. Moreover, he revealed revised income thresholds — Rs 15,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 20,000 in urban areas — to ensure fairness. He assured that door-to-door surveys would identify genuine beneficiaries, while luxury houses or expensive cars would be grounds for cancellation.
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