AMRITSAR: Shiromani Akali Dal has urged both the Union & State Govt of Punjab to stop politics over ration cards issue & to ensure justice to all eligible beneficiaries of Atta Dal scheme and it asserted that Atta Dal scheme has already become Atta & No Dal scheme.
In a statement released here from its party headquarters in Chandigarh, Senior SAD leader and former Education Minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said that whether it is Union government which stops supply due to eKYC update or it is State govt which deletes ration cards on political considerations, the sufferer is the common man. Surprisingly, both governments are talking about deletion of existing cards but none is thinking to include remaining eligible beneficiaries.
He said that even the quantity of wheat supplied has been drastically decreased. He said that the state government has stopped its own quota of wheat which was given at Rs. 2 per kg. Now the state government was only distributing the wheat being supplied free of cost by the Government of India under National Food Security Act.
He said that it was also a grim reminder of how federalism was being trampled, the Union Govt bypassing state government & using its party leaders as its mouthpieces.
He said that equally condemnable is AAP’s erosion of State autonomy. Punjab’s land pooling policy was drafted not in Chandigarh but by Kejriwal’s Delhi team. Sisodia & other Delhi leaders interfere daily. Even political appointments in Punjab are cleared from Delhi by team Kejriwal.
He said that both Centre & AAP Govt are equally guilty. One weakens Punjab from outside, the other surrenders from within. Punjabis deserve policies rooted in Punjab’s soil, not dictated by Delhi durbars or central diktats.