The residents of north-east Delhi’s riot-hit Noor-e-ilahi and Ghonda said they had applied for ration on the Delhi government’s website but are yet to her back from the authorities.
The government recently launched a website for services listing “food required”, “ration required”, “₹5,000 compensation for construction workers”, “pension amount” and “e-pass for travel during curfew”.
At least 120 residents had applied for ration and none of them have either received a call or been visited by any official, it has been learnt. The area is inhabited mostly by unskilled workers, who hail from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, and are now out of work.
One of the residents, identified as Salman, who runs a medical shop, said he had helped families apply for ration on the government’s website, adding that they had also requested for e-passes. “People in the neighbourhood are niether educated nor technologically sound and so they sought help. I applied for ration for 120 families,” he said and mentioned that the application was made four days ago.
“Many of those who have applied do not belong to Delhi and do not have ration cards here either. They are out of work due to the restriction of non-essential services and are in need of ration,” he said.
A 23-year-old woman, identified as Imrana, a resident of Noor-e-ilahi, who used to work in a diaper-making factory, said that her family has eight members, four of whom, including her, were working. All of them, however, at home, without work and without money. “The employers said that they would not give money and we don’t know when this lockdown will end. My brother is a rickshaw-puller and my father ran a small business which has been shut now. We are left with little money which will not last long. That is why we thought of applying for ration,” she said.
“ Socha tha sarkar se thodi madad ho jaegi lekin vo bhi nahin ho rahi [We thought that the government would help us a bit, but that is not happening]”.
Gulfam Mustafa, who hails from Bihar and resides in Noor-e-ilahi, used to sew cloth material for a living. He said that he had also applied for ration to be able to feed his family of six in the coming days. “This will go on for months. We are getting help from good samaritans of the area who donate food, but what about a week or two from now?” he said.
Mr. Salman said that after there was no response from the government on the requests, he wrote to the Chief Minister on his official email id, sharing the problem and requesting him to look into the matter. The email, he said, was sent on March 30.
