BJP wants India’s ration recipients to suffer: AAP

NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favouring largescale theft of food grains meant to be distributed under the public distribution system (PDS) across states, turning the political heat on the Centre for “blocking” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s doorstep delivery of ration scheme.

Hours after a press conference by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on the issue — which came soon after a press briefing by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal — Sisodia took on the BJP for attacking the AAP government on the scheme.

The political war of words ensued a day after Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal rejected the ration scheme. Baijal’s office has, however, disputed this claim and said the L-G did not “reject” the scheme, but only “advised for the constitutional scheme of things to be followed in letter and spirit”.

Sisodia rejected Patra’s allegations that Kejriwal was “misleading people” on the matter.

“Patra made two large points on doorstep delivery of ration. He said the current system is efficient enough. So, he means the BJP is fine with theft and pilferage in the PDS system. So, the BJP will resist any proposed change. They want 80 crore ration beneficiaries across the country to suffer because of large-scale theft of ration,” Sisodia said in a video briefing.

“Then he (Patra) alleged that we (the AAP) are trying to make money out of the scheme by levying additional charges on ration beneficiaries. He does not know that the central government orders allow states to charge ₹3 per kg for processing wheat under PDS schemes. In Haryana, the BJP government charges ₹3 for providing flour to PDS beneficiaries. In Delhi, we proposed a charge of ₹2 for processing wheat as well as ensuring doorstep delivery. Patra hardly said anything about such things and chose to invest his time on misleading people and ranting against Arvind Kejriwal,” Sisodia said.

The scheme was to be launched on March 25, but the Union food and consumers affairs ministry wrote to the Delhi government on March 19 raising objections.

Earlier, Patra said no state government has the right to tweak central government schemes.

“If Arvind Kejriwal wants to distribute ration outside the national programmes under the central government, he can purchase grains at notified rates and do it. But no state has the right to tweak a central scheme being implemented uniformly across the country.”

Referring to Kejriwal’s statement that ration shops may turn “super-spreaders”, Patra said, “Arvind Kejriwal does not see potential super-spreaders when it comes to supporting large gathering of farmers in Delhi’s borders and misleading them against the central government, but he sees potential super-spreaders in ration shops.”

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said, “The CM should tell people why the ration given by the Centre has not been fully distributed.”