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Updated June 12th, 2021 at 11:05 IST

ONOR scheme: Hardeep Puri slams WB & Delhi CMs over SC order, says 'they keep protesting'

Hardeep Singh Puri took a dig at both West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as 'they protest too much.'

Reported by: Swagata Banerjee
Hardeep Singh Puri
Image : PTI | Image:self
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Hours after the Supreme Court came down heavily upon the West Bengal government, directing it to implement the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme immediately, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri took a dig at both Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for not implementing the scheme in their state/UT and stated that 'they protest too much.'

The 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme aims at providing ration and food security to migrant workers and their families under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). 

Earlier on Friday, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had highlighted that 34 States/UTs had implemented the scheme rolled out by the Centre in 2019 after the Union allowed an additional borrowing of 0.25 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to states for the same. However, West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Assam are yet to adopt it.

Centre-state tussle

Supreme Court's observation came as the court was informed that West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Assam had not yet implemented the scheme.

The counsel appearing for Bengal government said that the scheme had not been implemented "due to problems with Aadhaar seeding technology". Bengal CM had earlier announced that subsidised food items such as rice and pulses will be available to migrant labourers and unorganised sector labourers, even if they do not have a ration card, till May 2021.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government and Centre are stacked against each other over doorstep ration delivery and the One Nation One Ration card system

The Delhi CM had earlier alleged that the Centre was denying free ration to the poor under the guise of lack of approvals and not allowing their 'door-to-door' ration delivery scheme. Responding to Kejriwal's accusations, the BJP on Friday slammed the Delhi Government alleging that CM Arvind Kejriwal-led government is under the control of the "ration mafia". Prasad claimed that Delhi's proposal of home delivery of subsidized grains is merely a show to promote a "scam". If grains are home-delivered, people will not get to know how much of it is going where and how much of it might have disappeared on the way, RS Prasad said. 

Last week, Delhi CM Kejriwal had said, "Just two days before the 'Doorstep Delivery of Ration' scheme's implementation in Delhi, the central govt stopped it. They claim we didn't take approval. We took approval not just once, but five times. Legally, we don't need Centre's approval but we did so out of courtesy." 

SC asks states, UTs to implement 'one nation, one ration card' scheme

The Supreme Court on Friday said states and union territories must implement "one nation, one ration card" (ONORC) scheme as it allows migrant workers to get ration at the place of their work in other states as well where their ration cards are not registered. The top court also took strong note of the delay in the development of software meant to register workers of the unorganized sector to create a national database and posed queries to the Centre as to how they benefit from free food grain till November this year under the 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana would reach to migrant labourers having no ration cards.

(With Agency Inputs)

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Published June 12th, 2021 at 11:05 IST

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