Telangana Govt Cancelled Lakhs of Ration Cards Without Notice, Alleges Bandi Sanjay

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene in the cancellation of ration cards by the Telangana government. The state BJP asked the human rights organisation to direct the state government to revoke the cancellation of 19 lakh ration cards and also immediately lift the ban on seven lakh fresh applications received for the new ration cards.

BJP state President and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar wrote a letter to NHRC saying the government cancelled 19 lakh ration cards without stating any reason. He termed the cancellation of ration cards and a ban on applications for the new cards a violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution including the violation of human dignity, as guaranteed under Article 21.

The BJP leader said the basic nutrition through the public distribution system (PDS) was a statutory right, where even linking Aadhar cards as a prerequisite for a ration card was not mandatory. He claimed that  there were 17 parameters, which could be invoked to cancel a ration card and none of those were taken into consideration by the government while cancelling these ration cards.

The Karimnagar MP alleged that the Telangana government has so far cancelled 19 lakh ration cards since 2014 without giving any notice and rhyme and reason forcing poor people to forgo the subsidised ration. He said the government neither created a grievance redressal mechanism nor accepted fresh applications for ration cards. 

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Requesting the Commission to order the Telangana government to complete the revocation of cancellation of ration cards in a time-bound manner, preferably within three months, the state BJP chief Sanjay said the directions were essential from this Commission as the Government of Telangana had refused to understand the problems being faced by the citizens of the state.