NEW DELHI: The row over the Delhi government’s plan for doorstep delivery of ration escalated on Wednesday with the Aam Aadmi Party government saying the Centre has rejected Delhi’s ambitious scheme by posing senseless questions like how the ration will be delivered to beneficiaries living in multi-storey buildings in narrow bylanes.
Delhi received a letter from the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution on June 22 stating that the ration scheme can’t be approved because it does not meet the statutory and functional requirements of National Food Security Act.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called the Centre’s letter painful, asserting that the scheme was in national interest.
Targeting the central government on Twitter without naming it, Kejriwal said: “Fighting everyone all the time is not good — Twitter, Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi government, farmers, traders and even the West Bengal chief secretary.” Kejriwal asked how the country will progress amid so much fight and asked the Centre not to fight over Delhi’s ration scheme.
TimesViewAt a time when appropriate Covid-19 behaviour is of paramount importance, doorstep delivery seems to be a timely idea to avoid crowding at ration shops.
The Centre can well suggest ways to improve the scheme.
But a prolonged tussle on a scheme like this certainly doesn’t help Delhi’s citizenry.Addressing a digital press conference, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia slammed the Centre over the objections raised by it.
He said it had earlier suggested dropping the term, ‘Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna’, from the scheme which the Delhi government had accepted, but now it has rejected the scheme entirely.
“The central government has cited reasons like pricing, verification of addresses, mobility, narrow lanes, multi-storey buildings where the poor live and accommodating change of addresses in the rejection letter,” said Sisodia.
Read AlsoDoorstep delivery of ration in Delhi: Food ministry cites operational difficulties, transparency issuesThe food ministry has turned down the Delhi government’s proposal for doorstep delivery of ration allocated under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) flagging shortcomings and concerns over likely operational difficulties, transparency and ensuring uninterrupted supply to poor who either shift“One of the issues raised in the letter is how will delivery of ration be ensured if the vehicle carrying the ration breaks down or gets stuck in traffic.
These kinds of excuses are very unbecoming of a Prime Minister in the 21st century.
If pizza, clothes and food can be delivered all around, why not ration for the poor?” Sisodia asked, directly questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking a swipe at the Centre over the objection that free movement of ration delivery may not be successful in multi-storey buildings, Kejriwal indirectly hit out at Modi.
“21st century India has reached the moon and you are stuck on the third floor,” said the CM in a tweet.
Conceived in early 2018, the doorstep delivery of ration scheme, a brainchild of Kejriwal, has got stuck because of a prolonged Centre-AAP government tussle on the issue.
Recently, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal had raised objections.
He had observed that the scheme required the Centre’s approval, pointed out that a writ petition on the issue has been filed in the high court and returned the file to the state government for reconsideration.
The LG’s observations put the scheme, ready for an immediate rollout, on hold.
It triggered another major confrontation between the Centre and the AAP government.
In a recent note, the CM rejected the observations of the LG, asserting that the scheme has already attained finality.
It will, however, not be rolled out by the food department without the Centre’s nod.
“The PM has left aside all his work and resorted to just fighting with the state governments and obstructing their work.
Why has PM Modi adopted such a quarrelsome stance? In 75 years, it is perhaps the first time that we have a PM who fights all the time.
It seems like the PM wakes up every morning and makes a list of individuals to fight with,” Sisodia stated, urging the PM to open his heart and let the Delhi government deliver ration at the doorstep of consumers.
The ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution has raised multiple objections, pointing out that the proposed scheme involves distribution of packed food commodities instead of wheat and rice which are distributed under the NSF Act.
It has also underlined that the scheme does not have clarity on how Delhi government will maintain/update the addresses of beneficiaries to ensure uninterrupted home delivery every month even in case of change of address because most poor beneficiaries keep on changing their accommodations.
The ministry’s letter also said it was not clear how the Delhi government will ensure coordination with beneficiaries for timely delivery at a fixed date/time because that may get hampered due to traffic congestion and breakdown of delivery vehicles.
It added that there was no clarity on whether there will be one or multiple contractors.
Observing that there were concerns regarding implementation of the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ plan (ONORC) for food security of migrant beneficiaries, the ministry has also asked how Delhi plans to integrate the home delivery scheme with ONORC to provide ration card portability to the beneficiaries.