CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced that people in the state would no longer have to stand in queues to get ration as it would be delivered at their doorstep. “The AAP government has decided to start the doorstep delivery of ration scheme. Under the scheme, good quality ration items will be delivered at the beneficiaries’ doorsteps and no one will now need to stand in queues or leave his work for this,” Mann said.
“Our officers will make a phone call to the beneficiaries and ration will be delivered at their homes as per their convenience and availability,” he said. Soon after, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP-led Central government had stopped his government from implementing ‘Ghar-Ghar Ration Yojna’, but cannot do the same in Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party stormed into power after the recent elections. It was an idea whose time has come and citizens in others states too will “start demanding” doorstep delivery of ration, Kejriwal said.
“We will deliver ration to the doorstep of every poor family in Punjab, the ripple effect of which will echo across the country. We had made full preparations to implement the scheme in Delhi, but the ruling party at the Centre kept putting roadblocks. The whole country will watch the scheme run successfully and demand it be implemented in every state,” said Kejriwal in a virtual press conference in the national capital.
The plan for doorstep delivery of ration scheme was first conceived by the AAP and has been in the works since 2015, when it came to power in Delhi. But, the plan ran into a hurdle with the Centre and could not be implemented so far in the national capital.
“Is it fair that even after 75 years of Independence a poor man has to stand in long queues just to put food in his house while someone can order a pizza or groceries on call? There’s a saying, ‘you cannot stop an idea, whose time has come’. The idea is here, and its time is now,” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi BJP unit reacting sharply against Kejriwal’s allegations. Party spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said it was “regrettable” that the AAP chief tried to “mislead” the people on the issue.
‘Centre never prevented Delhi govt’s ration scheme’
“The Centre has never stopped Delhi from implementing doorstep delivery of ration, it has just asked it to buy its on ration and distribute it as it wants,” said Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor. He said that CM Arvind Kejriwal wants to use the ration given by the Centre under doorstep scheme while this ration given under National Food Security Act can be distributed through PDS system to beneficiaries of one nation one ration card scheme.
Kejriwal, however, accused the ruling party of stalling most of the AAP government’s schemes in Delhi, including mohalla clinics, which he said initially couldn’t take off for two years, but the city government kept at it and got it implemented. The CCTV project was also stalled by the Centre, so were the works related to schools and hospital, the Delhi CM alleged. “For last 75 years, people of this country have been obstructed when they have been wanting to move forward and grow and prosper,” he said.