Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the Delhi government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme would now be nameless in the wake of the Centre red-flagging the use of ‘Mukhya Mantri’.
The Delhi Cabinet would meet on Monday to formally drop the reference to the Chief Minister from the ‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna’, scheduled to begin from March 25, Mr. Kejriwal said. The Delhi government would accept “all conditions” required by the Centre but wouldn’t allow any obstruction in the implementation of the scheme, he said.
“On March 25, 2021, the Delhi government was supposed to begin the revolutionary flagship project — the Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana. Every State government provides ration to its poor. All ration shops are supposed to open every day but generally open only two or three days, making it very difficult to get ration. Many dealers mix unhealthy materials in the ration and charge extra money from the poor,” Mr. Kejriwal told a digital briefing.
It was due to this situation, he said, that the Delhi government came up with the idea of home delivery of ration.
Under the scheme, a pack comprising atta, rice and other ingredients would be delivered to individuals by the government.
“We were all set to launch this scheme on March 25, but yesterday we received a letter from the Central government, whereby it directed us not to implement the scheme,” he said.
‘Not seeking credit’
“It looks like they [the Centre] have some issues with the use of the word ‘Mukhya Mantri’. We are not coming up with this scheme to publicise our name. The Centre has written that the name of the scheme will make it look like a State government scheme. I want to make it very clear that we did not plan this scheme to get any credit,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal said, a meeting with all the officials concerned was held on Saturday where he had issued directions to do away with the name of the scheme. Making the scheme nameless, Mr. Kejriwal said, he was hopeful that the Central government would allow the Delhi government to implement it.
Ration mafia
It was very important to defeat ration mafia and to ensure that every poor person gets ration at their doorstep, he said. This was also, according to the Chief Minister, a personal battle for him.
“That was when I learnt how the residents of Delhi struggle to get ration. During the course of our work, we found how the ration mafia worked. I’ve been fighting the ration mafia for several years to implement this scheme. Now it was all set and I was confident that our dream of 22 years will become a reality,” he said.
“But we will not allow any barriers to stop us and have decided to accept all the directions and clauses proposed by the Central government. We will follow all the directions. Our only aim is to send the ration to the residents of Delhi. We just want Delhi’s poor to get clean ration without any difficulty,” he said.
