Duare Ration to continue for now, will move SC if CM gives nod: Min

KOLKATA: The state government will continue with its Duare Ration (Government at Doorstep) scheme as of now, state Food and Supplies minister Rathin Ghosh said on Thursday.

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday had declared the 'Duare Ration Scheme' of Bengal government as ultra vires to the National Food Security Act, 2013 and legally void.

"We will discuss the matter with our senior officials and will take the nod from the Chief Minister, and if she gives us the approval, we will move the Supreme Court challenging the High Court's order," Ghosh said.

The Duare Ration scheme, a brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, started from November 16 last year.

Through this scheme the state government is reaching out to the doorsteps of at least 9.25 crore beneficiaries.

Two petitions on behalf of the ration dealers' association were filed before two separate single-bench judges, claiming that the government's plan to deliver ration on the doorstep curbed the right of the association members.

In separate verdicts, the single-bench judges had dismissed the petitions of the association, following which appeals were filed before the division bench.

On Wednesday, the division bench said: "We are constrained to hold that the State Government has transgressed the limit of delegation by obliging the Fair Price Shop dealers to distribute the rations to the beneficiaries at their doorstep in the absence of any authority to that effect in the enabling Act, that is the National Food Security Act."

The ration dealers have divided all the beneficiaries under their jurisdiction into 16 clusters and have designated a fixed day of a week of each month for distribution of foodgrains at each cluster. Entire ration for one month period is being delivered to the beneficiary at one go.