Pizza Delivery And PDS Ration Delivery Is Not The Same
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-06-07 10:15:16
About the Author
It is sad that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal has taken to compare home delivery of PDS ration with delivery of pizza, burgers, smart phones and clothes. When he had announced the scheme, he had termed it a revolutionary step to make a public scheme available at the doorstep. But by now comparing it to ecommerce delivery, he his making it look cheap.
Kejriwal has to recognize that giving heavily subsidized PDS ration to select beneficiaries is a Central scheme that is being implemented through licensed fair price shops all over India in a singular manner. No deviations are allowed for the simple reason that all material distributed under the scheme is accountable and the licensees are answerable for stocks they receive. The government gives them the stocks as per the beneficiaries listed with them and takes the account of the materials before replenishing.
It is necessary to keep a close watch over the system since the grains supplied are heavily subsidized and the incentive to divert them for sale in the open market is immense. Enormous profit can be made by unscrupulous traders. Now, if this system is bypassed, the PDS stocks are lifted by the state government and delivered at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries, who will be held accountable?
Then it is a Central scheme that is to be followed by all states. Prior permission, especially in case of Delhi where the Lieutenant Governor has sway over the elected government, is necessary to deviate from it. The Delhi government needs to take full responsibility of the stocks and explain how it proposes to prevent leakages. Even then, it is upon the Centre to decide if it allows it or not.
The unilateral decision of the Delhi government in changing the dynamics of a Central scheme that involves highly subsidized food grains, however convenient to the beneficiaries, cannot be accepted as it is an administrative decision that has not been vetted for efficacy. Kejriwal should follow due process and seek prior permission before tinkering with Central schemes.
