Kejriwal batting for 2.93 lakh fake ration card holders: Gupta
NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, on Tuesday said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is advocating the cause of 2.93 lakh nonexistent families which were registered in Delhi's ration system by way of fake ration cards. Gupta stated that these fake ration cards were depriving the genuine and poor people who have been waiting for years together to obtain their ration cards.
“It is a deep rooted conspiracy of corruption to help Aam Aadmi Party and its workers through giving ration distribution rights to some private company,” said Gupta.
The Leader of Opposition alleged that Kejriwal is misleading public by shedding crocodile tears for poor people. The identification of fake ration card holders has resulted in saving of 58,000 quintal of wheat and rice leading to saving of Rs 7 to 8 crores per month. The aggressive opposition by Kejriwal shows that his party and party men are being deprived of benefit which will be denied by cancellation of bogus ration cards. Gupta demanded that CM must immediately start the process of preparing new ration cards in place of the cancelled 2.93 lakh bogus cards. “In case he is committed to eliminate the corruption from the ration system he would not advocate the cause of non-existent ration card holders,” Gupta said.
It is imperative to note that at insistence of CM, e-pos that is electronic point of sale machines were pressed into service on January 1, 2018 and were withdrawn on April 25, 2018 notwithstanding the fact that 99.04 percent ration card holders drew ration by means of biometric identification. This is the highest percentage in India. During seven months, 2.93 lakh ration card holders did not turn up for collecting ration despite repeated notices/ SMSES to the concerned ration card holders.
Vijender Gupta said that e-pos machines were installed following dogged perusal by CM. He subsequently took U-turn on the basis of bogus premises.