Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday instructed the Food Department officials not to cancel the ration cards of poor families.

The order follows controversy over reports that over 22.6 lakh Below the Poverty Line (BPL) cardholders were deemed ineligible.

The chief minister ordered that if the ration cards of any family other than government employees and income tax payers are cancelled, they should be returned immediately, the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement.

“The chief minister has warned that action will be taken against the Food Department officials if the ration cards of poor families are cancelled without any reason,” it added.

Official sources said the Karnataka government has identified 22.63 lakh ineligible BPL card holders in the state as it decided to revise the list.

They said the state did a survey of BPL cardholders in August this year, which revealed that there are 22,62,482 ineligible BPL cardholders. Now the government is contemplating cancelling them.

Fear loomed large over withdrawal of many benefits given to lakhs of families including 10 kg food grains to each member of the family every month under the Anna Bhagya scheme.

There were apprehensions that the women head of the BPL families availing Rs 2,000 a month under the Congress guarantee Gruha Lakshmi scheme may be withdrawn.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister K H Muniyappa told reporters in Kolar that all the southern states do not have BPL cardholders more than 50 per cent.

“In Karnataka, which is second most tax revenue generating state after Maharashtra, there cannot be 75 to 80 per cent BPL card holders. So we have to cancel them,” Muniyappa said.

He, however, clarified that the government was not cancelling the cards but only converting them from BPL to Above Poverty Line (APL) cards.

According to the minister, those in government jobs, paying income taxes or those whose annual income is above Rs 1.2 lakh are ineligible for BPL cards.

This move gave the opposition BJP a new weapon to target the ruling Congress in the state.

The party led by the Opposition leader in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka, former Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan and K Gopalaiah, took out a march in the city visiting houses of the BPL families. Later, they staged a demonstration against the government move.

A BPL card holder told reporters in Bengaluru that she got to know that her ration card has been cancelled after she went to a government run ration shop.

She was worried that her newborn daughter would not get the Karnataka government’s welfare programme for girl child and get her educated.

Reports poured in from various parts of the state where people from the economically weaker section expressed their shock and dismay over the government’s move.