New Delhi: The Delhi high court has directed that the government to install complaint boxes at all the ration shops in the city to ensure proper distribution of foodgrains during the COVID-19 crisis. Hearing a petition that alleged that fair price shops were not operating during working hours and often did not have rations, the court has also issued instructions for making all helpline numbers functional.
During the hearing of a petition filed by the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA), a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh also said the government should give rations to all who those need them. It said this should be done without any red tape or bureaucratic hurdles in the preparation of e-coupons.
The Abhiyan had filed a petition urging the court to ensure access to rations for all during the COVID-19 lockdown.
In its petition, the Abhiyan – which conducted several surveys of ration shops around the capital city to see if fair price shops were working properly while the poor were facing grave economic hardship due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown – had placed before the court its findings on how people were not getting their share of promised rations. Both the Delhi and Central governments had announced additional free ration for people in view of the lockdown.
During the hearing on May 6, it pointed out that the system of issuing e-coupons to those who do not have ration cards was inaccessible to the most vulnerable as it required a smartphone, ability to use the internet, generate OTP, upload photos of the family and a copy of the Aadhaar and finally to download the e-coupon.
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The Abhiyan suggested that facilitation desks should be set up at all the schools and ration shops to give coupons to people who need foodgrains but do not have ration cards and are unable to apply for e-coupons.
At this, Justice Mridul observed that the Delhi high court had earlier made it clear that ration should be provided to all those in need irrespective of whether they have a ration card and commented that the e-coupon system caused unnecessary red tape and bureaucratic hurdles at a time when people were in dire need of food.
Taking cognisance of the issue that in many places people reported of being denied the full stipulated quantity of foodgrains, as also highlighted in the reports by DRRAA, the court asked the counsel for the Delhi government the phone numbers of all the complaint helplines. The lawyers for DRRAA pointed out that the complaint number 1967 has been inaccessible and does not connect despite repeated attempts. They also stated that since the morning of May 6, 2020 the line often connects to the helpline number for ration distribution in Dehradun.
At this, the court directed that the government should install complaint boxes at all the ration shops and designated schools (where rations are being distributed) and also ensure that all the helpline numbers are functional. It gave the Delhi government four days to file a detailed compliance report on each of the directions and listed the matter for May 18.
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Earlier, on April 27, the court had directed the Delhi government to ensure that all ration shops disbursing foodgrain remain open during working hours and grains are even disbursed to those not in possession of ration cards. Hearing a petition filed by a food rights group, the court also directed that monitoring of the distribution be done through the concerned sub-divisional magistrates and the details of rations disbursed be uploaded the same day.
However, despite the court order the situation had not improved and another survey of the ration shops by the Abhiyan had revealed that many of them still remained closed during working hours or claimed to have run out of stocks. The Abhiyan had then urged chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to intervene in the matter.