A day after the Delhi Assembly elections’ schedule was announced, women, residents of slums, homeless people and Delhiites from different backgrounds gathered on Tuesday to demand all political parties to focus on food security while drafting their manifestos.
At a public meeting organised by the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, residents from across the Capital narrated their experience with availing of ration, pension and other government services.
Ramwati, a resident of Mangolpuri, said about 50 applicants in her neighbourhood had been awaiting information about the pension scheme forms they had filled in June, but there had been no update from the government.
Quality of ration
Noor Jahan, a resident of Begumpur, said the quality of ration received through the public distribution system was poor. “At the time of voting, they [political parties] promise all kinds of things, but after the elections, it all stops,” she said.
Kamlesh, a resident of Janta Mazdoor Colony, said she had applied to add names to her family’s ration card in 2016, but there had been no progress.
With several speakers complaining of the pending ration card applications, Anjali Bhardwaj of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, said while the Centre decides the amount of ration and funds to be allocated to the PDS, the Delhi government could give funds from its own budget to expand the PDS benefits.
At the end of the meeting, the Delhiites gathered there demanded that the political parties promise they will provide pulses, oil and sugar at subsidised rates to all food security cardholders, enhance the coverage of food security to include the homeless, transgenders and migrant workers and end the quota system in PDS. Representatives from the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress and Swaraj India were present, while no one from the BJP attended, a statement from the Abhiyan said.
