Political Temperature Rises In Bihar Over Denial Of Government Benefits To SIR-Deleted Voters

Patna: Political slugfest has erupted in Bihar over denial of government benefits including cancellation of ration cards of those people whose names have been deleted from the electoral roll.

Media reports have quoted Bihar chief minister Samrat Chouhdary as saying that people whose names had been deleted from the Bihar electoral roll would not be entitled to any government benefits, including ration and other welfare schemes.

Reacting sharply to it, senior RJD leader and party spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said, “Our leader (Tejashwi Yadav) has been saying about denial of the government benefits to SIR-deleted voters from the very beginning and it is now coming true.” He alleged that the state government wanted to deny benefits of state-run welfare schemes to reduce the number of existing beneficiaries as much as possible and hence it was initiating such steps.

In his conversation with the media, CM said that bank passbooks of those deleted would also be cancelled in due course of time. On the other hand, Bihar food and consumer protection minister Ashok Choudhary said that names of about five lakh people had been deleted from among ration-card holders after the completion of SIR process in the state.

State CPI (ML) secretary Kunal strongly condemned reports regarding preparations to remove the names of PDS beneficiaries from their ration cards. He termed the move as “anti-poor, unjust, and contrary to the spirit of the Constitution”.

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He noted that in recent times, the SIR list itself had been adopted as the sole basis for issuing caste and domicile certificates—a development that is deeply concerning. By treating the flawed SIR list as the master record, the basic rights of the people are being trifled with, he alleged.

Senior Congress leader Azim Bari claimed that it was unfortunate” the state government was taking such a step. He contended that the state`s new government should make efforts to reduce the problems of common people instead of increasing them.

BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel said that the name of not a single bona fide voter had been deleted from the electoral roll in Bihar, asking how benefits of government`s welfare schemes could be provided to those whose names had been deleted from the SIR.