The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Corruption in PDS”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

“Corruption in PDS”

Staff Reporter

Punish the guilty for purchasing poor quality pulses, demands Bidhuri

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Ramvir Singh Bidhuri in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Nationalist Congress Party president and Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri on Tuesday demanded that the Delhi Government continue with the policy of supplying ration to all Class IV employees and non-gazetted employees on the grounds that they were in need of subsidised food and discontinuation of the scheme for them from April 1 would only put a financial stress on them.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Bidhuri said he had met Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and even urged her to lead a delegation to the Union Agriculture Minister and NCP president Sharad Pawar to seek greater allocation for Delhi under the public distribution system.

Mr. Bidhuri said during his meeting with Ms. Dikshit he also asked her to continue with the supply of subsidised food to all those covered at present so that no one feels deprived. Terming the Rs. 1 lakh criteria for determining eligibility for getting ration through the PDS as “not workable”, he said today all the Class IV employees were drawing more than this amount but still they are leading a hand to mouth existence.

Mr. Bidhuri also raised the issue of the Rs.2 per kg wheat and Rs.3 per kg rice Antodaya scheme meant for the nearly 1.50 lakh poor families remaining on paper only. He wondered why after just two months the scheme of providing 4 kg of pulses to the poor families had been discontinued. Stating that the reason being doled out for this lapse was that the quality of pulses procured was poor, he demanded to know why no action had been initiated against the responsible officials in that case.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi