Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday sent a detailed representation to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ramvilas Paswan, voicing his deep concern about chinks in the public distribution system and food security for the poor amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
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Mr. Ramesh addressed his representation to the Union Minister within hours of the government’s assurance in the Supreme Court that his concerns would be “duly attended to.”
“Over the last several weeks of the nation-wide lockdown and subsequent extensions of the same, numerous reports are coming in from across the country regarding inadequate food stocks and wide variances in distribution of the same amongst beneficiaries,” Mr. Ramesh wrote to Mr. Paswan.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Ramesh, represented by senior advocate Salman Khurshid, sought a non-discriminatory implementation of the National Food Security Act.
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However, during the court hearing, Mr. Ramesh’s side went on to acknowledge that they had come directly to the apex court without approaching the government first. The court finally allowed him to withdraw the petition in order to “enable the petitioner [Mr. Ramesh] to submit a detailed representation to Respondent No.1 [Union of India]. Solicitor General has submitted that it shall be duly attended to.”
In his representation to Mr. Paswan, Mr. Ramesh argued the urgent need to identify gaps in the supply chain by comparing data of January this year with April on active PDS outlets. He also asked the government to ensure that food grains were not denied on non-production of ration cards to anyone during the lockdown period. He has sought exemption for the requirement of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for the release of food grains during the lockdown.
“This was not an adversarial petition but instead an attempt to help the government identify an area where more data can assist in better policy formulation. I hope you consider this representation in the same spirit,” Mr. Ramesh wrote.
