The Supreme Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to implement Centre’s ‘one nation-one ration card’ scheme immediately without any excuse.
“You can not cite one or the other problem. This is for migrant workers,” the Supreme Court said.
The apex court also reserved its order on the case relating to problems faced by migrants during the lockdown and on registration process of unorganised workers so that they can avail the welfare benefits given under various government schemes.
Under the scheme, the beneficiaries of government’s public distribution system (PDS) will be able to draw ration from any biometric verification-enabled fair price shop across states and Union territories covered by it.
However, the scheme has faced opposition from some states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said 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, Union minister Piyush Goyal targeted the Delhi government as he said, “Request Delhi Govt also to stop creating obstacles for poor migrants and implement One Nation One Ration Card Scheme.”
Earlier, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said to help migrant population receive their quota of ration at their place of work, the central government launched “one nation one ration card” scheme but Delhi is among the three states which has not implemented it.
The Kejriwal government also stopped e-authentication of ration shops within four months of its launch in 2018 after lakhs of fake ration cards were spotted, he claimed and a sought reply from the chief minister as to why the process was not completed. The Delhi government also has no data on Dalit and tribal beneficiaries of the ration scheme, he said.
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