NEW DELHI: The Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA) filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking immediate provision of ration and cooked food for the needy having no ration cards. With a surge in Covid cases in the capital which is under a lockdown till April 26, many livelihoods have been lost. Intense financial distress and food insecurity has gripped the economically weaker sections -- daily wagers, domestic workers, construction labourers and the homeless, the DRRAA pointed out.
Thousands of people are turning up at the homeless shelters in the Yamuna Pushta area seeking food. In the absence of requisite measures, many are being turned away, the petition said. The DRRAA has sought provision of dry rations for those who do not have ration cards. This could be done either through resumption of Mukhya Mantri Corona Sahayata Yojna or any other scheme so that people do not go hungry. Free cooked meals should be distributed through shelters for the homeless and hunger relief centres set up for the purpose.
To prevent exclusion of the most marginalised, it sought setting up of help desks and kiosks to assist those not covered under PDS scheme of the National Food Security Act. Last year the Delhi High Court on a petition moved by DRRAA had ordered that all persons in need of food should be provided rations irrespective of whether they possess ration cards.
Emergency food security provisions are required urgently to avert a hunger crisis in Delhi, the DRRAA said. Only 37 per cent of the population of Delhi possesses ration cards. This means a large section of the poor and marginalized, including migrant workers, are left out of the food security net, it said.