BJP, AAP fighting for credit over doorstep delivery scheme: Cong

New Delhi, March 21 Amid the tussle over the doorstep ration delivery scheme between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre and Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government, former City Food and Civil Supplies Minister and Congress leader Haroon Yusuf on Saturday said that both the parties are fighting to take the credit of the scheme.

Speaking to media here, Yusuf alleged that there was big corruption in the AAP government's scheme to provide door-step delivery of ration, which has been stalled by the Union government.

He said that it was clear that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi were in league, and they have hatched up a plan to stop the door-step delivery of ration plan, to mislead the people of Delhi.

He said the fight between the BJP and the AAP is about who takes the credit for the scheme, as the BJP government does not want the scheme to be in the name of the "Mukhyamantri" (Chief Minister).

Yusuf said that there should not be any politics in the delivery of ration to the poor, who have been totally subjugated due to job loss and all other means of livelihood, on account of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

Yusuf said that when Congress was in power at the Centre, it passed the National Food Security Act in October 2013, due to the initiative of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, to cover the helpless poor.

Targeting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Yusuf said that if his government was keen on providing ration to the poor, it would not have slashed the number of existing ration card holders, from 35 lakhs to 17 lakhs, and over 11 lakhs families would not have been made to wait to get new ration cards, for the past six years.

He said that there are several loopholes in the existing ration delivery system, as may ration card holders are denied ration, ration shops remain shut for days together, adulteration of ration is rampant, and despite people standing in queues for hours together, ration items are doled out in a pick-and-choose manner.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said he won't take credit for this scheme.

His remarks came a day after the Centre raised objections on Delhi government's flagship scheme of doorstep delivery of ration saying the word 'Mukhyamantri' can't be used in the name of a programme to distribute food grains under the National Food Security Act.

( With inputs from IANS )