Delhi’s statements in top court ‘misleading’: Centre
Setting the stage for yet another face-off with the Delhi government, the Centre has termed as “misleading” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s statement before the Supreme Court last week in which it said it has commenced implementing the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme.
The ONORC scheme helps beneficiaries, especially migrant workers to avail of subsidised food commodities anywhere in India and is currently operational in 24 states and eight Union territories. Apart from Delhi, the Centre has said, West Bengal, Assam and Chhattisgarh are yet to make the scheme functional.
The Centre criticised the Delhi government for depriving scores of interstate migrants present in Delhi of their quota of subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the absence of full implementation of ONORC. In Delhi, nearly 7.2 million people are eligible for subsidised food under various schemes.
In written submissions filed before the top court on Monday, the Union government underlined that implementing the ONORC scheme only in one circle of Delhi with a handful of transactions doesn’t make it really functional. “The claim of GNCTD regarding launch of ONORC plan in NCT of Delhi is misleading, as they claim to have implemented
NEW DELHI:
it only in circle 63 Seemapuri. Only a handful of transactions conducted in (a) single circle with about 42 epos (electronic point of sale) machines cannot be considered as implementation of ONORC,” the Centre submitted in writing.
Delhi government spokespersons refused to comment on the matter.
The Centre said that unless the national portability transactions were rolled out formally in all the fair price shops of all circles of Delhi, in which more than 2,000 epos machines have been supplied and are waiting for operation, it could not be considered as implementation of the scheme.
“It is pertinent to appreciate that a very large number of intestate migrants are present all across Delhi who do not have access to their NFSA foodgrains, being away from their own villages/hometowns, are not able to take the benefit of their quota of subsidised NFSA foodgrains in Delhi as there is no full implementation of ONORC and reporting of such transactions of NFSA/ PMGKAY (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) foodgrains on the central portals/dashboards,” the Centre submitted.
The Supreme Court is expected to pass further orders in this matter later this week.
On Friday, the Delhi government, through its standing counsel Chirag M Shroff, informed a bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah about making the national scheme functional as the court heard the suo motu case on “problems and miseries of the migrant workers”. Shroff refuted the statement of solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who represented the Union government, that Delhi was one of the four states yet to implement the scheme.
The Delhi government’s assertion followed its affidavit in the Supreme Court that read: “Regarding efforts to be made to encourage migrant NFSA beneficiaries to use facilities of portability under ONORC, it is submitted that in Delhi, to begin with ONORC has been implemented in circle 63, Seemapuri, and from this facility, portability facility can be availed.”
Last week, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to allow the AAP government’s doorstep delivery of ration scheme while saying that it was a waste of resources to have two schemes (ONORC and doorstep ration) trying to do the same thing.
THE CENTRE SAID IMPLEMENTING THE SCHEME ONLY IN ONE CIRCLE OF DELHI WITH A HANDFUL OF TRANSACTIONS DOESN’T MAKE IT FUNCTIONAL