NEW DELHI: In the last four months, around 4.2 lakh Delhi residents have not received ration, due to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's rejection of the Delhi government's decision of doorstep delivery of ration scheme, government officials have claimed.
In the last few months, the ration delivery system in the Capital has been in a mess.
In a recent order, the LG asked the elected government to stall the doorstep delivery of ration scheme and reconsider the rejection of e-PoS based ration delivery system.
After the Delhi government decided to give ration to beneficiaries who had linked their Aadhaar card with the Public Distribution System (PDS), rural parts of the Capital witnessed many problems.
Nearly 25 lakh people did not get ration, which forced the Delhi government to change the decision.
Sources in the government said it faced hurdles in ration distribution in slums, outskirts areas and unauthorised colonies.
The Delhi government, on January 1, had said that ration distribution in all 2,254 fair price shops here was made online and will now be managed through the electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) devices.
The process of distributing ration based on Aadhaar card linkage started from November 2017.
However, following this decision, over 4.2 lakh cardholders were unable to avail rations under the PDS throughout November, as the ration disbursal system was fully digitised and shifted to e-PoS devices, noted government reports.
These people constitute around 16 per cent of the total ration cardholders.
Later, in February this year, the Delhi government scrapped the decision of using e-PoS machines based on Aadhaar cards to distribute ration.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said, "e-PoS was introduced to stop pilferage of ration. From what we know so far, the Cabinet decision was a little different from how it was implemented. We are still looking into what these differences were and how they affected people."
"We have directed the chief secretary to prepare a Cabinet note in a week's time for doorstep delivery of ration. The note should be prepared in such a way that it can be implemented within two-and-a-half months. Till then, rations will be distributed the old way," he added.
To combat this problem the Delhi Cabinet, on March 6, approved a system of doorstep delivery of rations, which will increase human interface.
Sisodia said the proposal was sent to the Bajial for his approval. But the LG did not approve the decision and asked the government to reconsider it.
A statement from the LG office observed that Baijal advised that the proposal for home delivery of ration be referred to the central government with full details, including all implementation issues, before a final decision is taken.
The statement also said that the LG had not rejected the Delhi government's decision to do away with e-PoS machines, but had advised it to reconsider the decision, as the introduction of e-PoS devices to ensure end-to-end computerisation of the targeted public distribution system is a national level reform for plugging leakages and transparency.