Centre prevented 'big scam': BJP
New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday claimed that the Centre has forestalled a "big scam" that the Delhi's AAP government might have committed by "diverting" subsidised food grains, as it hit back at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for targeting the central dispensation for stopping his scheme of doorstep delivery of ration.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Delhi government is free to run such a scheme by purchasing grains at a notified rate, but it has no right to tweak or stop a national programme of subsidised ration distribution under the Food Security Act to launch its own plan.
Speaking at a virtual press conference, Patra also claimed that there is zero Aadhaar card authentication in Delhi against the national average of 80 per cent and that the Kejriwal government had also earlier stopped the operation of POS machines, which allow biometric verification.
It means there is no way one can find out if the food grains are being delivered to the needy or diverted, he alleged.
"We will never know to whom Arvind Kejriwal is giving ration to. He wanted to launch a ration diverting system. He wanted to start a big scam as the ration would not reach the right person and nobody knows where it might have gone... The Centre has prevented a big scam from taking place," the BJP spokesperson alleged.
The same grains might have been sold at a highly inflated price, he said.
The Delhi BJP demanded the Arvind Kejriwal government implement the Centre's 'one nation one ration card' scheme after the AAP leader alleged the Centre stalled his government's doorstep ration delivery scheme.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta alleged in a statement that "thousands of workers have not got ration as Kejriwal had done nothing on Centre's 'one nation one ration card' scheme".
"If he really wants to do something for the poor, he should implement this one nation one ration card yojna. Ration for poor is rotting in government schools but his government has failed to distribute it," Gupta said.
He further added that under the National Food Security Act and the Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Yojna, the Centre was already giving "free ration to 80 crore people for May and June in addition to 72 lakh card holders".
