A day after the Haryana Food and Supplies Department suspended the licence of a ration depot holder in Karnal for forcing people to buy the national flag at ₹20 with the ration under the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Thursday, clarified that no one can force the ration card holders to buy ration.
“No person will be denied any services even if he does not wish to buy the national flag. Under the Har Ghar Tiranga Abhiyan’, people can voluntarily buy the national flag,” he said.
The CM directed the officers concerned to spread mass awareness about this campaign. If any organisation wants to help the state government in this campaign, then they can contact the Deputy Commissioner of their respective districts.
Meanwhile, the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) has already initiated strict action against a depot holder at Hemda village of Karnal for forcing the ration card holders to mandatorily buy Tricolour to get their ration. Besides this, the monthly supply of ration of the depot holder has also been suspended.
“The depot holder, Dinesh Kumar, forcibly sold the flags to ration card holders and also defamed the state government by misleading the ration card holders. The state government has given clear instructions that the availability of tricolours at the Public Distribution System (PDS) centre has been ensured just for the convenience of the public so they do not have to go far to buy flags. No one can be compelled to buy the flag,” an official spokesperson said.
Karnal Deputy Commissioner Anish Yadav said action has been taken against a depot holder at Hemda village for misleading ration card holders regarding the sale of Tricolour and his licence has been cancelled.
Video of subsidised ration depot holder in Karnal went viral on Wednesday after the Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi tweeted the video saying, “It will be unfortunate if the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Independence becomes a burden on the poor. Ration card holders are being forced to buy the Tricolour or their share of ration is being deducted instead. It is shameful to collect the price of the Tricolor that resides in the heart of every Indian by snatching the morsel of the poor,” he added.