Family ID weapon to cut pension, ration card of poor: Hooda

Chandigarh, Dec 31 (IANS): Former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said the BJP-JJP government has turned the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) into a weapon to cut the pension of the elderly and the ration card of the poor. “Without any information and investigation, the government is indiscriminately stopping people’s pension and ration. Pensions of about 5 lakh elderly people and ration cards of about 10 lakh poor families have been cut so far by showing random and baseless incomes in family identity cards,” he said in a statement here.
The elderly and poor families are now visiting government offices, but they are unable to get any relief. The former Chief Minister said the family identity card carry serious errors. “A person who has been working in Delhi Police for 10 years has been put in the BPL list and the names of poor widows have been removed from this list. Income of lakhs was shown in the family ID of poor families who are primarily surviving on welfare schemes of the government,” he said.
“Many such examples are being seen that the income of street vendors and tea sellers has also been shown more than that of government employees. The government filled the income column of the people in the family ID without any investigation and information. The government does not have any way of verifying information on family cards,” he said.
Hooda said under the guise of PPP, not only pension and ration, but the poor are also being deprived of the benefits of all government welfare schemes.
“Poor families are also being deprived of Ayushman scheme. The issue was also raised by the Congress in the Assembly and we told the government with facts that how large-scale irregularities are taking place in the family identity card and the property ID,” he said.
“The public is facing the brunt of the government’s mistake but the government kept pretending to be ignorant despite knowing everything. Every section of the state is troubled because of the government performance and the impact of its policies,” he said.
Hooda reiterated that people will be freed from problems like PPP and property ID, when the Congress government is formed. “Every eligible elderly will be given pension on the basis of self-declared income and yellow ration cards will be given to poor families,” he added.