Cuttack, Dec. 28: The name of mayor, Anita Behera, has appeared in the list of beneficiaries for subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act.

The issue figured today at the meeting of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, which witnessed uproarious scenes with Opposition parties accusing the mayor and the BJD of misusing the scheme and demanding her resignation. The Congress demanded a criminal case be registered against the mayor.

However, Behera expressed ignorance about her name appearing in the list and said: "It's an unfortunate incident. Someone in my family might have applied for a ration card. I have neither applied nor have I received any ration card so far. The moment it came to my notice, I applied for withdrawal of my name from the list."

Municipal commissioner Gyana Das said the corporation, according to the rules, had already formed a team, led by the additional commissioner, to ensure that "no genuine beneficiary is left out and other ineligible beneficiaries are removed from the list". He implied that the mayor's case would go to the team for scrutiny.

Expressing concern over irregularities in the selection of beneficiaries and inclusion of the mayor in the list in particular, the Congress councillors raised slogans and demanded her resignation.

"A criminal case should be registered against her. As mayor, she is getting privileges, including a government quarter, staff members, vehicle and other facilities, and how can she be enrolled under the food security act, which is meant for the economically backward and other marginalised groups," asked Congress councillor Giribala Behera.

He demanded that the mayor should resign on "moral grounds" as there have been instances of the government suspending its employees in several places for applying ration cards under the act in the state.

The Opposition also targeted the BJD for such irregularities in selection of beneficiaries. The Congress councillors alleged that many influential people in the city had been included under the scheme and genuine beneficiaries had been left out.

"Mayor of the city is a well known name, and how could the officers in charge of scrutinising the applications did not check the papers? This shows how the list of beneficiaries have been selected," said another Congress councillor, Dharmanand Patra.

BJD councillors, however, defended the mayor, saying that she had not personally applied for any ration card under the act. "So far, it is not clear that she had applied under the scheme. But if she (the mayor) would have signed the application form, it is a serious offence," said BJD councillor Bijay Sahoo.

On October 31, the corporation's council meeting had also witnessed similar scenes during a discussion on the irregularities in preparation of the final list. Subsequently, the civic body had set up a special cell consisting of six senior officials to monitor applications for inclusion or exclusion of names in the list prepared for the act.

Official sources said that initially there were discrepancies as nearly 2.20 lakh forms had been issued while only 1.30 lakh people submitted those, for which only a list of 65,000 beneficiaries had been prepared so far.