Hyderabad: Civil Society members have demanded that the Telangana government issue ration cards for migrants and unorganised workers under the National Food and Security Act.
Numerous civil society members and NGOs have sent a representation to Telangana consumer affairs, food and civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar, the chief secretary and principal secretary of the state, demanding that ration cards be issued to all the migrants and unorganised workers from Telangana registered on the e-Shram portal, complying with an earlier Supreme Court order.
The representation is signed by S Q Masood, secretary of the Association for Socio Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised, Sister Lissy Joseph, secretary of the Telangana Domestic Workers Union, among others.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court issued order directing all the States /UTs to issue ration cards to the people registered on e-Shram portal but don’t have ration card and the exercise for issuance of ration cards is required to be expedited,” Maqsood said in a tweet.
The representation has asked the government to comply with the April 20 Supreme Court order and demanded complete transparency in giving out information regarding the compliance of the order in the public domain.
Publishing a list of identified ration card holders and people registered on e-Shram portal with their ration card status, providing wider publicity while issuing ration cards also figure in the demands of the organisations.
The representation has also asked governments to universalise access to the Public Distribution System for all migrant/unorganised sector workers and provide access to ration cards without complex inclusion and exclusion criteria.
It also calls for increased involvement of civil society organisations, NGOs and public representatives in the ration card issuing process.
