JOIN USTelangana is staring at a gaping hole in the public distribution system (PDS) as the state has more than 1.7 crore ration cards, including 91 lakh white ration cards given to BPL families, whereas there are only 88 lakh households qualifying for benefits through PDS.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday, while addressing a meeting on ‘Comprehensive household survey’, said it is a shame on the part of the previous government to have not collected proper data on families while announcing schemes.
“As a result of the sloppy work done by the earlier Congress government, genuine households that are supposed to get the benefits have been denied,” he said, adding that the funds of the government have been plundered for their own gains.
KCR further said when data was sought from the four departments, each one provided different information. “Hence, the thrust for a comprehensive household survey now,” he explained.
The chief minister also said, “It is a similar case for other welfare schemes like housing, in which sanctions have been made and funds released, but no houses were constructed. Moreover, there are bogus colleges that do not have faculty, infrastructure according to the All India Technical Education Council guidelines, but tuition fee reimbursement has been given to these institutes.”
Reiterating that only eligible Telangana students will get fee reimbursement, he said the government is not in a position to provide it for the Andhra Pradesh students.
“Many students come to study in Telangana state. But we cannot reimburse their fee. The Andhra Pradesh government has to pay the fee for its students,” KCR stated, adding that the tuition fee welfare scheme alone would cost Rs 4,000 crore.