The Central Government has told the AAP Government in Delhi that it is in violation of section 12 of the National Food Security Act, 2013. The Central Government has said that the Delhi Government has not operationalized the Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices at the fair price shops.
The Union Government said in its communication, “By not operationalising ePos devices at the FPSs (for transparent distribution of foodgrains), GNCTD is in violation of Section-12 of the Act. Reforms under TPDS are mandated under the Act to promote transparency and rightful targeting.”
The letter continued, “In this connection, this Department has been continuously pursuing the implementation of ePoS distribution of foodgrains from all FPSs of Delhi for the last three years. More than 12 letters/DOs have been written to GNCTD from all levels in this department. However, the distribution of foodgrains in Delhi is still being done using old/manual register-based mechanisms.”
The letter by the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs also mentioned that the non-compliance of the same is still blocking the implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) policy.
One week previously, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Arvind Kejriwal, calling his scheme of doorstep delivery of ration nothing but a “jumla”. In a press conference previous Friday, Ravi Shankar Prasad tore into Arvind Kejriwal accusing his government in Delhi of being under the control of the ‘ration mafia’ and claimed that the proposal to deliver subsidised ration to people’s homes is nothing more than a publicity stunt to promote a “scam”.
He asked that if Kejriwal is actually concerned about his people then why hasn’t he implemented Centre’s ‘One nation, One ration card’ scheme in Delhi. Prasad slammed the Delhi CM saying that until now, 34 state and Union territories have implemented the scheme.