Coronavirus lockdown: Doubts about ration diversion, as several ration shops remain shut in Delhi

One-third of the ration shops a group of activists visited over the past five days in the national capital are not functioning while several ration shop dealers claim that the food grains they received have finished raising concerns about diversion of articles delivered by the government.

The Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyaan (DRRAA) said in its 'Report on Monitoring of Ration Shops in Delhi during COVID-19 Lockdown' that 13 out of the 37 ration shops the activists visited for the past five days since April 4 were closed on most of the days.

The Delhi government has announced that poor people will get 7.5 kg of good grain for free. Delhi has around 72 lakh out of 1.93 crore people who have ration cards.

In one case, the report said, one particular shop in Narela has been shut since March 29 and locals told activists that the shopkeeper and his relatives own 3-4 shops in the area and they distribute ration in another location in Tikri Khurd village.

"In almost all the shops, which were found to be shut, we were informed that the stock had finished and the shop will be open when new stock arrives," the report said. Some shopkeepers, who opened the shops, said they have received stock of wheat but not rice and they are not distributing ration due to this.

However, the report said, the official online database shows that the government as already delivered full allocation of rice and wheat to ration shops for both April and May.

"For some of the shops which stated that stocks were over (and therefore were shut or were open and not distributing grains), we could locate cardholders who had not yet received their rations even though the online website shows that their ration had been dispatched to the shop. The issue of shops claiming stocks are over requires an investigation by the Food Department," it said.

The report said the issue of shops claiming stocks are over requires an investigation by the Food Department. A Delhi government order has said that the ration stock for April and May should be delivered to all ration shops by March 29.

"It is, therefore, not clear how the stock has finished already, especially since the update put out by the Delhi government on April 3 mentions that ration has been distributed to only 60% of cardholders (no update has been put out since then). This raises serious concerns about the possibility of diversion of grains. No details of ration cardholders who have availed rations for April or proof of distribution (sale registers) are available in the public domain. No reports of the daily stock position of each shop are publicly available," it said.

Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had warned shop owners against misusing rations delivered to them. At least two incidents of diversion of ration have been discovered in the national capital after the lockdown due to COVID-19 was imposed on March 25.