NEW DELHI: The doorstep ration delivery scheme is meant for the benefit of poor people and not to sustain the fair price shops, the AAP government told Delhi High Court on Friday.
Appearing before a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that the fair price shops are only a medium and if the government has a better scheme, there is no prohibition in law to ensure that ration at no extra cost reaches the beneficiaries without them having to leave their home.
“We have put on record the glaring nepotistic practices and leakages. We now have end-to-end computerisation. There has not been even a single challenge to the scheme from the beneficiaries. It is common sense, why would anyone object to getting ration at their door for no extra cost,” Singhvi contended.
The government’s reply came after the bench sought to know why it didn’t include the FPS in its doorstep delivery scheme, so that the ration dealers’ association would have no grievance against it in the first place.
“We all carry rather a poor impression of these shops and probably for good reason since there were no checks, they were not giving foodgrains or selling it in the blackmarket. But all these measures of ePos, geotagging have been put in place. If it can be done through the process you have adopted by bypassing the FPS, why can’t it be done through them? That serves every one’s purpose,” the bench pointed out.
Singhvi explained that there is a “parallel system without total abolition” of the FPS and they have the option to continue. He claimed as per the government’s feedback, 69 lakh out of 72 lakh beneficiaries have opted for home delivery of ration. “We had tenders for it. They were free to participate. They want the vested interest and architecture to continue, that's why they did not participate,” he added.
The court is hearing a plea by Delhi Sarkari Ration Dealers’ Sangh challenging the Delhi government’s scheme for doorstep delivery of ration, Mukhymantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna. Earlier, the Centre had said that the court should not allow any state to interfere with the structure of NFSA and destroy its architecture. Fair price shops are an integral part of NFSA, it stated.
