NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday took strong exception to the decision of Food Commissioner Mohan Jeet Singh to go ahead with the cancellation of around 2.93 lakh ration cards without any valid and justified reason, despite strong objections by Delhi Food Minister Imran Hussain.
The Chief Minister also sad that the Food Commissioner has taken the action at the behest of the Centre.
However, rejecting the Delhi government's allegation, Singh said 2.48 lakh "ineligible" ration card holders have been deleted after following "due process of law".
Kejriwal said, "This act of defiance appears to be a conspiracy to deny ration to the poor people and is a clear, deliberate and intentional violation at the behest of the Central government."
Moreover, the Delhi government, in a statement, stated, "Since these officers do not report to the elected government, therefore they are working against the interests of the people of Delhi, which is a very serious matter."
"The Department officers have failed to appreciate the adverse social impact of cancellation of 2.93 lakh odd ration cards covering more than 10 lakh beneficiaries. All such families and members in one go would be rendered hungry because of the insensitive, apathetic, hostile, inhuman attitude of the officers," it stated.
The cancellation, the statement read, "is being done by officers sitting in their offices without any field inspection and without following due process of law. Such acts of commission or omission make the acts of public servants suspicious. Their conduct may invite disciplinary action against the concerned officers."
Meanwhile, justifying his actions, Singh said the exercise undertaken by his Department "must be one of its kind" and the Public Distribution System (PDS) has been "cleansed and sanitised". He said ration "worth crores were saved from pilferage".
Singh also said he has recommended to the government for restoration of the e-PoS (electronic point of sale) system, which the government had put on hold.
The Delhi government warned against officers who are started the cancellation process has been undertaken without door-to –door survey of households.
Delhi has nearly 19,42,000 ration card holders, of whom more than 15,38,000 ration card holders have been taking their rations.
However, between March and April this year, 2.93 lakh card holders had not turned up to take rations.