Ration scheme not for credit, will drop its name: Kejriwal

Kejriwal said the Delhi Cabinet will convene a meeting on Monday to pass the revised scheme, which will no longer bear any name or mention “mukhyamantri” in it.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday his government will not use the name “Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana” to refer to the scheme that will facilitate doorstep delivery of ration, and urged the central government to now allow its roll-out that is scheduled for launch on March 25.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the scheme was planned with the intention to remove inefficiencies the system and address the difficulties faced by people in getting their monthly quota of ration. (HT PHOTO)

Kejriwal’s announcement at a digital press conference came a day after the central government red-flagged the project, saying the term “mukhyamantri” (chief minister) cannot be used in the name of a scheme to distribute foodgrains allocated under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

In a letter to the Delhi food commissioner on Friday, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said the Delhi government is free to launch the scheme “without mixing the elements of the NFSA foodgrains”.

Kejriwal said the Delhi Cabinet will convene a meeting on Monday to pass the revised scheme, which will no longer bear any name or mention “mukhyamantri” in it. After approval by the Cabinet, which is chaired by Kejriwal, the revised modalities of the scheme will be sent to the Centre again for its clearance. In this case, the Centre’s approval is required as the scheme is linked to food grains provided to states by the Union government under NFSA.

“We will agree to all the conditions of the central government. Our intention is only to send cheap and clean ration to the beneficiaries without any pilferage or corruption... This project will not have any name now. I hope now we will have full cooperation and support from the central government for the roll-out of this scheme,” Kejriwal said.

DJ Narain, spokesperson for the Union ministry of food and public distribution, said on Saturday, “We have to wait for a formal proposal to know the details. Appropriate action will be taken accordingly.” Narain had earlier said that a state government cannot suo motu (on its own) change the basic elements of a scheme being implemented nationally.

The issue is the latest in a series of flashpoints between the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government. Six days before the scheme’s roll-out, the Centre raised objections to the use of the term “mukhyamantri” for the scheme and said any change in the delivery mechanism of the NFSA can only be done through a Parliament amendment. S Jagannathan, joint secretary in the Union ministry of food and public distribution, also said in Friday’s letter that any change in the nomenclature would give rise to confusion among the people.

Kejriwal was scheduled to launch the scheme on March 25 from 100 households in Shahdara district’s Seemapuri area.

“The project is not new. We have been working on it for three to four years now and I have been personally monitoring this scheme. But this letter was issued just five to six days before the scheme’s roll out... We are not introducing this [scheme] to take credit or glorify our name,” Kejriwal said on Saturday.

“During peak Covid times also, we distributed free ration to people. Even at that time we said the credit is all for them (the Centre) to take. We will do all the work and take all the responsibilities. Today morning, I held a meeting and directed officials to remove the name of the scheme,” the CM added.

Kejriwal said the scheme was planned with the intention to remove inefficiencies the system and address the difficulties faced by people in getting their monthly quota of ration. Delhi has around 7.2 million ration beneficiaries and distribution of ration is currently managed by a network of 2,000-odd fair price shops.

“At present, people can get ration only by going to a fair price shop. They have to stand in long queues, or wait for shops to open as many open only for 2-3 days a month, which is illegal. Then there is the problem of pilferage, adulteration and corruption. So the doorstep delivery programme was aimed at addressing these systemic problems,” Kejriwal said on Saturday.

The Delhi government initially tried to implement the scheme in 2018, but then lieutenant governor Anil Baijal advised the AAP administration to give full details of the proposed initiative to the Centre. But by then, the Delhi government’s own departments also started pointing out problems with the scheme. For example, the finance department said home delivery of ration will only replace one set of human intervention with another. So, in the past three years, the government had been working on removing all these anomalies even as the Centre had largely agreed to states launching their own schemes without interfering with the NFSA.

The doorstep delivery scheme was one of the major poll promises by the AAP in the run up to the 2020 assembly polls. The Delhi government already offers nearly 100 such services across departments.

Under the AAP government’s plan, millers empanelled with the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation (DSCSC) Ltd will take wheat and rice from the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The wheat will be processed into flour, and the rice will be cleaned before distribution. The Delhi Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Store (DCCWS) Ltd will then engage Direct to Home Delivery Agencies to lift packed ration kits from fair price shops and deliver them to the doorstep of beneficiaries, a senior official involved in the project said.

On Saturday, the Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said Kejriwal’s announcement was an admission that the scheme was not “legally correct”. He added: “Kejriwal’s act of removing the name ‘mukhyamantri’ shows he has admitted he was only politicising it.”

The Delhi government has been at loggerheads with the Centre over a Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday which gives overarching powers to the lieutenant governor in the day-to-day administration and also limits powers of the assembly to constitute enquiry committees.