Punjab CEO okay with use of cards with CM’s pic
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

A blue card for Atta scheme

Bathinda, March 13
The state election office does not see anything wrong in the Atta-Dal scheme blue cards bearing pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The government can continue to distribute subsidised ration to lakhs of beneficiaries under the scheme, said state Chief Election Officer (CEO) VK Singh. Stopping the scheme at this juncture would hit the intended beneficiaries, he said.

The state government had made hundreds of employees work round the clock to prepare and distribute the blue cards before the model code of conduct came into force. In Bathinda, where the Akali Dal is fighting a battle of prestige for re-election of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, employees worked long, extra hours into the night to prepare the cards.

Though the state election office has ordered the removal of pictures of the Chief Minister and other leaders of the ruling combine from calendars, billboards or other places, the blue cards are an exception.

The Himachal Pradesh election office has banned ration cards carrying pictures of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Chief Election Officer V K Singh told The Tribune that the scheme was launched before the election schedule was announced. “It involves lakhs of cards which can’t be stopped at this juncture. If we stop the scheme or withdraw the cards, the poor beneficiaries of subsidised ration will be affected,” he said.

In the case of Himachal Pradesh, he said he would verify the reports that the ration cards with pictures of politicians had been banned.

The election officer was responding to reports that the Akalis along with the employees of the Food and Supply Department were distributing wheat and pulses in poor localities here.

“We have not received any complaint for wrong distribution of ration so far. We have made it clear that new blue cards are banned,” he said.