Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was “advocating the cause of 2.93 lakh non-existent families” registered in Delhi’s ration system by way of “fake ration cards” even as deserving ones awaited their due, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta alleged on Tuesday.
The allegations came a day after the AAP government said that the Food Commissioner decided to cancel more than 2.9 lakh ration cards without proper inspection.
The Department said 2.48 lakh “ineligible” ration cardholders have been deleted after following “due process of law”.
Saying that these fake ration cards were depriving the “genuine and poor people” who had been “waiting for years” to obtain bona fide ration cards, Mr. Kejriwal was acting as per a “deep rooted conspiracy” to help AAP by handing “ration distribution rights to some private company”.
“He is misleading the public by shedding crocodile tears for the poor. The identification of fake ration card holders has resulted in saving of 58,000 quintal of wheat and rice leading to saving of₹7 to 8 crores per month,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
He demanded that Mr. Kejriwal “immediately” start the process of preparing new ration cards in place of the cancelled 2.93 lakh bogus cards. In case he was “committed” to eliminate corruption, he would “not advocate the cause of non-existent ration card holders”, the LoP said.
“The e-Point of Sale were pressed into service on January 1, 2018 and withdrawn on April 25 notwithstanding the fact that 99.04% ration card holders drew ration by means of biometric. This is the highest percentage in India,” Mr. Gupta argued.
During 7 months, the LOP said, 2.93 lakh ration card holders did not turn up for collecting ration despite repeated notices to them. “e-PoS machines were installed following dogged perusal by CM. He subsequently took u-turn on the basis of bogus premises...,” he added.