NEW DELHI: The Union food ministry on Saturday refuted the charges of Delhi government that the Centre had blocked its “ration at doorstep” plan, saying that the city government is free to frame any programme, but cannot tweak the scheme under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which is implemented uniformly across states.
“The Centre will provide additional ration at notified rates for any other scheme that the city government wants to launch.
Where is the issue?” a source in the ministry said.
While the Centre bears the entire cost of the foodgrain under NFSA and beneficiaries only need to pay Rs 1, 2 and 3 per kg for coarse grain, wheat and rice, the states and UTs can buy from Food Corporation of India (FCI) at fixed rates for any other scheme.
Food ministry officials said Delhi government has so far lifted all its quota of NFSA (37,400 tonnes) of grains and distributed 90% of it.
As far as PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna (PMGKAY) is concerned, it has lifted 63,200 tonnes and has started distribution.
“It’s absolutely wrong to say that the Centre is preventing any state from doing something.
Why would the Centre deprive the citizens from any welfare scheme of any government? They can have another scheme, give it any name.
Why insist on disrupting an existing pan-Indian scheme, which is under NFSA?” an official asked.
Ministry officials said Delhi government has not taken action on the implementation of the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’, which could have served more than a million migrant workers in the capital without any cost to the city government.
“Delhi government also suspended the use of e-PoS machines in April 2018 in its nearly 2,000 fair price shops.
After persuasion, only now these have been installed, but have not been fully used for online PDS transactions.
This undermines transparency and rightful targeting under NFSA and PMGKAY,” said an official.
The officials claimed that while the national average of Aadhaar authentication of PDS transactions is almost 80%, it’s ‘nil’ in Delhi, which denies lakhs of migrants the benefits of portability and encourages diversion of foodgrains.