The Delhi Government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme will be implemented in the national Capital without any name and a fresh proposal will be sent to the Centre for its approval, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.
The announcement came a day after Centre red-flagged ‘’Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna’’, saying that subsidised foodgrains under the ‘National Food Security Act’ cannot be used for State specific scheme.
The Central Government has objection to the word ‘Chief Minister’. So we have decided to provide door to door ration without any name of the scheme,” he said, adding that there will be a Cabinet meeting on Monday and its proposal will be sent to the Centre.
Kejriwal said “We will accept all conditions of the Centre but will not allow any obstruction in the implementation of the scheme. We were a little disheartened with the Central Government’s objection, but we have understood their issue with it; we just want the people to benefit and the ration mafia to be defeated.”
“We dreamed of this scheme for 20-22 years and I was personally preparing for it for the last 2-3 years, our battle of 22 years will be won with the implementation of this scheme.
Kejriwal said, “On 25th March 2021 the Delhi Government was supposed to begin the revolutionary flagship project — the Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana. Every State Government provides ration to its poor. People get ration from ration shops and face various difficulties. In many cases, the ration dealers also charge extra money from the poor, which is why citizens face a lot of difficulties in getting ration.”
Taking cognisance of this situation, the Delhi Government came up with the idea of home delivery of ration, he said, adding that under this scheme, the Government decided to prepare a pack comprising atta, rice and other ingredients, which the Government would then deliver to individuals.
“We realised this can reduce the issues citizens face in getting their monthly ration. This is why the Delhi Government came up with Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana. We were all set to launch this scheme on 25th March but yesterday afternoon we received a letter from the Central Government, whereby the Central Government directed us not to implement the scheme,” he said.
The Chief Minister said, “It was a bit surprising because just five days before the launch of the scheme we received such a direction from the Centre. We were trying to understand the reason behind such a direction. The Central Government has written that we cannot keep the name Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana. It looks like they have some issues in the use of the word Mukhya Mantri.”
“This scheme is not to publicise our name. 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. I am very hopeful that after this decision, the Central Government will not have any more problems with this scheme and they will allow us to implement this decision,” he said.