The Andhra Pradesh Government gave a big shock to ration card beneficiaries. The government cancelled 8.4 lakh ration cards in one go, as a result, 24.5 lakh people would be deprived of ration benefits. During the month of November, there were 1.5 crore ration cards, and now the number has decreased to 1.44 crore. Following this decision of the government, many who were lined up at fair price shops to register their biometric fingerprint were agitated as the transactions stalled.
The government has put forward a few rules for removing the ration cards. The ration would be cancelled for beneficiaries even if they fulfilled any one of the six rules. Also, government employees are not eligible for ration cards. The cards have been cancelled for employees of central and state and public sector units. The others who fall under this category are the income taxpayers, households using more than 300 units of power, persons having 10 acres of agricultural lands, houses in an area of 1,000 square yards. The volunteers have been asked to check and delete the ration cards. They have geotagged the houses. The ration card holders are strongly opposing this move of the government.
It is learnt that the government has decided to cancel the pensions also as the volunteers have already taken up a survey on this. The government anticipates resistance if both the cards and pensions are stopped at a time. The Chief Minister has announced that enhanced pensions would be given from June and it is said that the pensions will continue till that time. The burden on the increase in pension of Rs 250 would be an additional Rs 300 crore and the government wants to decrease the number to minimise the burden.
