One-time password was used to siphon off ration, alleges Sisodia
Ration had been issued to 1,549 ration cards on just 11 mobile numbers, which indicates ‘open theft’ of ration and explains why they (the LG and the food commissioner) did not want to return to the EPOS system.
MANISH SISODIA, Deputy Chief Minister
NEWDELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Friday alleged that subsidised ration, which is meant for poor people, was “siphoned off” using OTP (onetime password) system at fair price shops across the city and demanded suspension of food and supplies commissioner to ensure “fair probe” into the matter.
Sisodia urged the lieutenant governor Anil Baijal to approve the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s ambitious doorstep delivery of ration scheme and stop the existing e-pos (Electronic Point of Sale) system under which beneficiaries are given ration through biometric identification.
The Delhi government distributes 4.5 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to over 19 lakh card holders or 72.78 lakh beneficiaries at subsidised rates from 2,254 fair-price shops in the city.
The E-POS system was implemented from January 1 this year but due to internet connectivity problems at ration shops, many people were not getting ration. To overcome this issue, the food and civil supply department introduced an OTP system on March 1.
According to government officials, in this system when biometric identification of any cardholder fails, the fair price shopkeeper feeds the ration card number or Aadhaar number of the beneficiary in the E-POS machine and an OTP is automatically sent to the registered mobile number. This OTP is then fed by the dealer in the system and ration is taken out.
Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain, in a letter to the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal a few days back, mentioned that he received complaints in March that OTP system was being “misused”. But on March 21, when the minister asked for data the department suspended the OTP system the same day.
The department data show that OTP system was used in March for around 41,000 transactions.
“A preliminary enquiry into a sample of data indicates the OTP system has been misused and ration has been siphoned off during the month of March on a number of ration cards which appear to be fake,” he said.
The AAP leader f urther alleged that on one particular mobile number 87XXXXX009, 499 ration card holders were given ration via OTP, similarly subsidised foodgrain for 202 houses was given to another single number.
“Ration had been issued to 1,549 ration cards on just 11 mobile numbers, which indicates ‘open theft’ of ration and explains why they (the L-G and the food commissioner) did not want to return to the E-POS system,” Sisodia said.
He also said that Kejriwal and Hussain both on Friday wrote to the L-G indicating “open theft” in the delivery of ration and demanded suspension of the food and supplies commissioner.
“The lieutenant governor should immediately scrap the E-POS system and approve doorstep delivery of ration scheme. The food commissioner should be suspended otherwise a fair probe into the matter is not possible,” Sisodia said.
Several calls and text messages made to food commissioner KR Meena to seek his response on the government’s allegation went unanswered. He refused to meet the HT correspondent in his office.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in the Delhi Assembly on April 3, had also flagged a slew of irregularities including untracked funds amounting to R 7,270 crore and instances where ration shop owners cornered subsidised grains.