HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has strongly objected to the squandering of ₹100 crore in issuing new ration cards in place of the existing ones with the photographs of the Chief Minister and Civil Supplies Minister printed on them, in violation of the Supreme Court directions.

In a statement, official spokesperson of the party and MLC Dasoju Sravan said on Sunday that the government had spent about ₹100 crore on cloud servers, special websites, printing, lamination and transportation in 33 districts and demanded that a comprehensive audit by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) be ordered into the issuance of new cards and take action against those responsible for printing the photos of CM and Civil Supplies Minister.

He reminded that it was every Congress leader up to the AICC leadership including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who had faulted printing of the Covid-19 vaccine certificate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo in 2021. Under the Congress pressure, the Election Commission had removed the PM’s photo on the vaccination certificate during the Assembly elections to Uttarakhand, Goa and a few other States.

Terming it the blatant double standard of the Congress party, the BRS leader said, in the past, then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had turned down the suggestion to have his photo on the pattadar passbooks and ration cards since they were being issued with public money. Mr. Sravan sought to know whether the government would spent another ₹100 crore for re-printing of cards before the elections to GHMC and other local bodies in case the cards were cancelled due to election code.

Published - August 16, 2026 07:46 pm IST