Expressing anguish over the Centre’s failure to comply with its previous directions to ensure that poor people get ration, the Delhi High Court today sought an explanation for the delay and directed the government to comply with the court’s order at the earliest.
In an interim order, Justice S Muralidhar said “this order be personally delivered to the Union Health Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Ministry, through a special messenger within three days for compliance.”
The court also rejected the Centre’s plea to defer the hearing of the petition by four weeks and imposed a cost of Rs 5000 to be given to the petitioner.
The court was hearing a joint plea by various West Delhi residents complaining about their miseries on account of denial of ration on various grounds, including unscheduled closure of government’s fair price shops.
The court was upset to note that some of the poor people are not being given ration as their plea for renewing their ration card is pending with the authorities.
“Petitioner No 1, Premlata’s ration card is pending renewal for want of a biometric review. Meanwhile, she is not being given the ration despite having seven children to feed,” the court had noted in January this year.
“This court is unable to understand why ration card - holders whose cards are pending renewal are not being issued ration in the interregnum,” the court had wondered adding, “this is perhaps the plight of others also”.
