Bengaluru: Amidst a massive controversy over the revision of BPL cards, the State Government has suspended the process.
Addressing the media persons at Vidhana Soudha yesterday, Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa announced that except for government employees and Income Tax (IT) payers, all BPL cards will remain unchanged as of two months ago.
He clarified that the revision would be put on hold until a proper decision is made in the coming days. The suspended cards will be reinstated next week, allowing cardholders to access rations as before.
He claimed that the revision was in line with Central guidelines and a total of 3,81,983 cards — encompassing suspended, cancelled and converted APL cards — have been scrutinised. Of these, 64,589 were held by IT payers, 3,355 by Government employees and 39,159 by families with annual incomes exceeding Rs. 1.2 lakh.
Despite Karnataka being the second-highest IT-paying State after Maharashtra, Muniyappa pointed out that 69.6 percent of the population still holds BPL cards, prompting the revision process two months ago due to the State’s high per capita income.
Muniyappa highlighted that some constituencies including Devanahalli (90 percent BPL card holders) and Holenarasipur (92 percent) had high BPL card ownership.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), reaffirmed his Government’s commitment to providing free rations to the poor. He stated, “I have instructed officials to remove only Government servants and ITpayers from the BPL list.” He also questioned whether these groups, which are not poor, should benefit from BPL cards.
This post was published on November 22, 2024 6:40 pm