Citing ‘not permissible’ reasons, the Centre on Friday asked the Delhi government not to execute the said scheme for doorstep delivery of ration to Delhi households. Centre said, it is not allowed to use subsidised ration provided under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for the delivery scheme.
The notice was delivered to the Delhi government in a letter written by the Joint Secretary S Jagannathan in the Union Food Ministry. The letter mentioned that the subsidised ration being provided by the central government under NFSA “cannot be used for the operationalisation of any state specific/other scheme under different name/nomenclature other than NFSA as the same is not permissible under the Act.”.
Although, the Centre also clarified that it has no problem if Delhi government comes up with a new scheme without taking up the benefits of NFSA.
The Joint Secretary Jagannathan in his letter to Delhi food and civil supplies commissioner Padmini Singla also said, as by having their own scheme the states would like to intensify the distribution of ration with some additional subsidy or some other beneficial entitlements and this as a whole may lead to a misinterpretation by the beneficiaries regarding the state scheme and their rights under NFSA.
Responding to the Centre’s request, the Delhi ruling AAP said, it is really very disheartening that the Central government has asked the Delhi government for not implementing its own ‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana’.
The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was about to launch the doorstep delivery ration scheme on March 25 in northeast Delhi’s Seemapuri.
If the scheme could be launched, each beneficiary under the scheme would get full ration including packaged rice and wheat flour but after their biometric verification.
