‘Sheila forcing cash scheme on poor’
Civic society activists on Thursday alleged that chief minister Sheila Dikshit is forcing direct cash subsidy upon the poor people in the capital in place of foodgrains through the public distribution system (PDS).
Civic society members Arvind Kejriwal, Santosh, Madhu Bhaduri, Arvind Gaur, Annie Raja, Manish Sisodia on Thursday alleged at a press conference that the Sheila Dikshit government is all set to close down PDS shops in the city “even when the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) is fighting with the Central government for higher foodgrain entitlement to the poor”.
“The chief minister claims to be implementing a Planning Commission project to close down all PDS shops and give cash instead. Then how would Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s Food Security Act be implemented,” asked Mr Kejriwal.
The civic society members alleged that in a meeting at her office on Wednesday, the chief minister threatened that “if anyone came in the way of implementing this scheme, he/she would be arrested and put behind bars”.
However, when asked to comment on the allegations of the civic society members she did not reply.
“The chief minister informed in the meeting that her government is going ahead with this project on the basis of its own report, and the reports of UNDP and SEWA. She claimed that according to all these reports, the people of Delhi wanted cash instead of ration,” the civic society members said in a media release later.
They maintained that while SEWA report is based on a survey of just 150 families in the city against 4.5 lakh BPL and another 10 lakh APL families who draw rations, Ration Vyavastha Sudhar Abhiyaan, a group of many NGOS and civil society groups, has done a survey of 593 families and the findings of the two surveys are completely at variance”.
They claimed that while the SEWA survey says that 60 per cent people want cash, Abiyaan’s survey shows that 99 per cent people want PDS.
The civic society members also claimed that the Delhi government has already rolled out the scheme in the city and rations of 100 families in Raghubir Nagar have already been stopped and they are being given cash.
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