■ Doorstep ration delivery scheme must be implemented across country, says Kejriwal
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why the doorstep ration delivery scheme by his government was stalled by the Centre and appealed to him to allow its implementation in the national interest.
He said the scheme should be implemented across the country in view of COVID-19 otherwise ration shops will act as “super-spreaders”. “If pizza, burgers, smartphones and clothes can be delivered at home, then why can’t ration be delivered at their doorstep,” Kejriwal asked.
He alleged that the Centre was fighting with everyone, including West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi and Jharkhand governments, farmers and people of Lakhsadweep. “The Delhi government legally did not require Centre’s approval for the implementation of the scheme, but it sought permission five times to avoid any dispute,” Kejriwal said. He said the ration does not belong to BJP or AAP but the people of the country.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Sunday claimed that the Centre has forestalled a “big scam” that the Delhi’s AAP government might have committed by “diverting” subsidised food grains, as it hit back at Kejriwal for targeting the central dispensation for stopping his scheme of doorstep delivery.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Delhi government is free to run such a scheme by purchasing grains at a notified rate, but it has no right to tweak or stop a national programme of subsidised ration distribution under the Food Security Act to launch its own plan. “We will never know to whom Kejriwal is giving ration to. He wanted to launch a ration diverting system. He wanted to start a big scam as the ration would not reach the right person and nobody knows where it might have gone... Centre has prevented a big scam from taking place,” he alleged.