BJP MLA D’SOUZA TELLS ASSEMBLY ABOUT THE MISMATCH FIGURES OF STATE POPULATION

PANJIM: The Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Mapusa, Mr Francisco D’Souza on Wednesday told the state assembly that there was a mismatch of figures as regards to the state population as per the information provided to him by the government in response to his query and the Census figures of 2001.

Raising the issue during discussion on demands for revenue, settlement and land records, civil supplies etc in the state legislative assembly, Mr D’Souza said that there appeared to be more than 16 lakh people in the state based on the number of ration cards issued and persons listed therein, while the census figures of 2001 showed that the state population was 13.4 lakh.

He also said that as per government reply only four bogus ration cards were found by the authorities and wondered whether the number was accurate. He said that the state has issued 3.34 lakh rational cards to people in APL category while there were 12,000-odd holders of BPL ration cards besides some holding of ration cards under Antyodaya scheme.

Mr D’Souza faulted the government policy of supplying 10 kg of rice to each ration card per month saying that it was an injustice to those ration card holders who have more people listed therein, while those having one or two person get better quotient. He wondered how 100 per cent of the population could be satisfied with ration when only 60 per cent of the requirement was released to fair price shop owners. Mr Damodar Naik, the Fatorda MLA, wondered where over 9 lakh litres of kerosene that the state gets from the central authorities was going, saying that there were no records to show where it was going. He also said that ration cards were bifurcated to avail benefits of schemes like Dayanand Social Security. He also demanded that government should immediately appoint president to the state consumer forum.

Mr Ramesh Tawadkar (Poinguinim) alleged scam in the ration quota for below poverty line and said the quota was released in later half of the month and demanded that there should be probe in the "scam". Mr Pratap Gawas raised the issue of gas shortage in Sanquelim, while Mr Rajesh Patnekar raised the issue of short supply of kerosene.