By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Independent legislator John Leslee K Sangma has urged the Government to scrap the difficult formalities being followed in granting BPL ration cards.
“I am really confused on the conditions which are pre requisites for getting the BPL ration cards,” Sangma said while participating in the debate in the Governor’s Address in the Assembly on Monday.
Government has made it mandatory that documents related to land pattas is essential to avail BPL cards.
However, the legislator questioned how poor landless villagers will produce land pattas to get BPL cards.
Moreover, he said another restriction is that if a person has a cell phone he or she cannot claim for BPL cards.
Concerned over this irony, the legislator from South Tura has asked Government to simplify the procedures regarding BPL cards.
“While on the one hand, having a mobile phone is a bar for getting BPL cards, and at the same time the people are being asked to produce land pattas to get the BPL cards which is really strange,” Sangma said.
According to the independent legislator, the mobile phones would only cost around Rs 1000.
“But the cost of the land would be around Rs 3 to 5 lakh in places like Tura. Poor families do not have the power to buy land to submit the land pattas,” he said.
He said that it is because of this reason that the many poor people especially in Garo Hills are not getting the BPL card which is their right.
“If the genuine beneficiaries are not getting these cards then it is impossible for the Government to implement the Targeted Public Distribution System (TDPS) in an effective manner” Sangma said.
