'Centre now making senseless excuses'
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government and the BJP-led Centre were at loggerheads with each other once again on Wednesday when the latter sent a communication "rejecting" Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's doorstep ration delivery scheme despite Deputy CM Manish Sisodia clarifying that their government had never sent any "proposal" for the Centre to reject in the first place.
Moreover, sharing the 3-page letter from the Union Food Ministry, Sisodia on Wednesday, at a press briefing, noted that the Centre was citing "senseless excuses" to try and stop the Delhi government from implementing a scheme that he claimed will directly benefit as many as 72 lakh ration card holders.
Soon, CM Kejriwal also tweeted about it, "The doorstep ration delivery scheme was rejected on grounds such as what will happen if ration delivery vans break down or get stuck in traffic, how will rations reach beneficiaries living on third floors of a building (India of 21st century has reached the moon and here you are stuck on third floor), and how will rations will be delivered to beneficiaries who live in narrow lanes."
Among other "concerns", the Union Food Ministry also concluded that the scheme had not accounted for people living in narrow lanes, who it said will have to step out of their homes to collect ration from the delivery vehicle, which would not technically qualify as "doorstep delivery".
"Therefore, in view of the above observations and concerns, it is clarified that the proposal of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi does not meet the statutory and functional requirements of the National Food Security Act and therefore, the proposal made by GNCTD can not be accepted," it read.
But given that the Delhi government had never sent a proposal for the Centre to approve, Sisodia said, "Ration distribution under the public distribution system (PDS) is the responsibility of the state. They had objection over the scheme for having 'Mukhya Mantri' in its title, which we removed. What proposal did they reject when none was sent to them?"
The AAP leader asserted that the doorstep delivery of ration scheme has to be implemented and squarely blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holding up the ration delivery scheme, calling the Union Food Ministry's "concerns" a list of "funny excuses".
He said, "It seems as if one morning he decided he wanted to pick a fight with the Delhi CM so he asked the Food Secretary to send this letter to us."
Both CM Kejriwal and Sisodia alleged that PM Modi seemed more interested in picking fights.
"Fighting with everyone all the time is not right - Twitter, Lakshadweep, Mamta didi, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi government, farmers, traders, and even the Chief Secretary of West Bengal. How will the country progress amid so much dispute and politics? Do not fight over doorstep ration delivery scheme. It is in the interest of the nation," the chief minister said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Sisodia, at the press briefing, asked, "Why are you always in a quarrelsome mood? The country has never seen such a quarrellous prime minister in 75 years... If people can have pizza, clothes and other consumables delivered to their homes, why can't ration be delivered to their doorstep?"
The Delhi government planned to launch the scheme for the doorstep delivery of ration in June. The launch was halted after the lieutenant governor returned the file on the scheme stating that it could not be implemented, according to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office.
Some other notable concerns included accounting for the differential pricing of ration considering extra costs of packaging the grain, details of how delivery contractors will be engaged and how e-POS verification will be done for beneficiaries receiving the supplies.
In addition, the Centre claimed the policy did not clarify how it will track changing addresses of thousands of poor beneficiaries.
However, at the press briefing, Sisodia pointed out that all the Centre had to do was seek these clarifications before "rejecting" something that was not for it to approve or reject.
