Arvind Kejriwal government under control of ration mafia: BJP

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government is under the control of "ration mafia" and claimed that its proposal of home delivery of subsidised grains is yet another "scam".

Addressing a press conference, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Kejriwal government cannot violate the Food Security Act, and fair price ration shops are at its core for the supply of subsidised grains to the poor as they are covered under the law's provisions and are accountable for any lapse. 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, he said, while attacking the Delhi government for not implementing the "One nation one ration card" scheme and not connecting its ration shops with electronic point of sale (EPOS) machine to "evade" accountability. "Grains at doorstep is very much a 'jumla' (rhetoric).

The doorstep ration delivery is yet another scam of the Kejriwal government. It is now being totally controlled by the ration mafia. Doorstep ration delivery might look good on the face of it but it is a big scam and a fraud on the people of Delhi," Prasad alleged.

"You want to break the law. You want to throw dust into the eyes of the people of Delhi. The central government procures and spends money on the scheme and you have to follow the law," he added. With Kejriwal targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government for not approving his dispensation's home delivery scheme, the senior BJP leader said the chief minister is free to launch a separate scheme outside the Food Security Act-covered programme.

Prasad noted that the Centre provides 37,573 tonnes subsidised grains to 73 lakh people in Delhi at the cost of Rs 1,163 crore, asserting that the interest of Delhi is very much its interest as well.