The country may be going through a food shortage crisis, but Delhi has different tale to narrate.
NEW DELHI: The country may be going through a food shortage crisis, but Delhi has different tale to narrate. The black-marketing industry in the capital has witnessed thousands of tonnes of rice and wheat siphoned-off the public distribution systems (PDS) in the past four years.
In a recent study conducted by the food and supply department of the Delhi government, authorities have observed that 2 lakh tonnes of wheat and 84,000 tonnes of rice have been drained off from the PDS causing a loss of subsidy of Rs257 crore.
“It is shocking. There are over 1.70 lakh people with fake ration cards. And if records of the past four years are to be believed, the food has been distributed among these people,” announced Arvind Kejriwal, a Magsaysay award winner.
The activist further emphasised that the food department maintained strict regulations when tallying the names of the people, who have been issued ration cards. “If the data is collected comprehensively, the total number of bogus ration cards should be around 3.5 lakh,” said Kejriwal.
Previous raids on government ration shops brought to light a nexus of 70 ration shop owners with bigger firms in western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, where wheat and rice was being sold to them instead of distributing it among the people.
“The government had registered cases against these ration shop owners and authorities had even cancelled their licenses,” said a senior Delhi government official.
Authorities have also found that there are individuals who have more than 900 ration cards issued in their name but have still not received their share of food grains. “We have found a woman who has over 900 ration cards, but she has not received a single supply of food grains in the past four years,” added Kejriwal.
v_gyan@dnaindia.net
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