From June 5, Delhi govt to distribute free grains to those without ration cards

From Saturday, the Delhi government will start distributing free rations to people outside the ambit of the public distribution system (PDS), through a network of 280 government schools, as part of relief measures announced by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last month in view of the lockdown that has affected household incomes, said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday

From Saturday, the Delhi government will start distributing free rations to people outside the ambit of the public distribution system (PDS), through a network of 280 government schools, as part of relief measures announced by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last month in view of the lockdown that has affected household incomes, said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday.

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Later in the day, food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain said, “By the night of June 2, the rations have reached 158 schools. Packages will be reaching the remaining schools by June 4. The whole process is being monitored by the chief minister.”

Delhi has been under a lockdown since April 19, in an effort to contain the alarming surge in Covid-19 cases which had left the city’s health-care infrastructure overwhelmed -- between April 15 and May 10, the city was reporting over 20,000 Covid-19 cases a day. On May 4, Kejriwal had announced that rations for the 7.2 million PDS beneficiaries will be distributed for free in the months of May and June. On May 18, he announced that free rations would also be given to people without ration cards.

The long delay in implementing the scheme, however, has caused more distress to people, said a few daily wagers HT spoke to.

“I have had no income since the lockdown was imposed and we are a family of four. For nearly two months now, we have been availing of daily meals at a hunger centre set up by the government. After the CM announced last month that rations would be given to those without ration cards, we were relieved. But we had to buy essentials in May because the government did not give us anything. We are out of savings now. It is a good thing that the scheme is finally taking off,” said Manish Ranjan, who works as a porter at the Gandhi Nagar wholesale garments market.

Amardeep Jha, who works at a gear box manufacturing factory in Naraina, said, “We have ration cards from Bihar. But they are not valid in Delhi. So, we had to struggle a lot for food in the month of May. There was no work and my employer did not pay me as the factory was closed the whole month. We were worried about how we would manage in June. We are relieved now to hear about the free ration scheme. If only the government had started it sooner.”

The initiative also gain importance considering that Delhi has also not implemented the ‘One nation, one ration card’ policy beyond a pilot project that is so far limited to one municipal ward in Seemapuri assembly segment. The Delhi government has estimated a maximum of two million beneficiaries under the proposed scheme, over and above the 7.2 million beneficiaries under PDS .

People who do not have ration cards will be provided five kilos of food grains for free every month. The 280 schools for distribution of the ration have been identified in a fashion that ensures at least four distribution centres in each of the 70 assembly constituencies. The distribution will be done between 10am and 4pm daily, except on Sundays, said a senior government official who did not wish to be identified.

The official further said, “People will have to come with some identity document such as Aadhaar card, PAN card, etc. Those who have no document proof will have to sign a self-declaration form. They will be registered on a portal on the spot. All schools have been given log-in IDs to the portal. They have to ensure that beneficiaries are not present in the PDS network and there is no case of one person availing of ration twice.”

Anjali Bhardwaj, Right to Food campaigner, who is also a member of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, said: “It is a good thing that the government has finally announced a date for ration distribution among people who do not have ration cards. The government has a bigger challenge ahead in terms of efficient implementation of the scheme.”

The Delhi government had launched a similar scheme in March 2020 too when the nationwide lockdown had happened.