'Delhi Govt Is Misleading': Centre Tells HC Over Implementation Of One Nation, One Ration Card

The Centre told the Supreme Court that the Delhi government’s claim that it has launched the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ (ONORC) scheme in the national capital was “misleading”

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New Delhi: The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday that the Delhi government's claims about the launch of the one nation, one ration card (ONORC) are false.

The Delhi government is "misleading" the Supreme Court about the "one nation, one ration card" (ONORC) scheme, the Centre told the court on Monday, amid a dispute over food ration delivery to residents' doorsteps in the national capital.

According to the Centre, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has only implemented the scheme in one part of the city and not in all areas.

The Supreme Court ruled last Friday that states and union territories must implement the "one nation, one ration card" scheme, which allows migrant workers to receive rations at their workplaces in other states where their ration cards are not registered.

The government told the court that Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi have not implemented the scheme, despite the fact that it aims to enable all migrants to access their food grains from any ration shop anywhere in the country by using their existing ration card with biometric authentication.

The court had taken up the issue of migrant labourers' problems and miseries questioned the Centre for not establishing a national portal for registering workers in the unorganised sector and reserved its orders.

Earlier this month, the Centre blocked a doorstep food rations delivery scheme that Delhi claimed would benefit 72 lakh people beyond the economic hardship caused by the lockdown (loss of jobs and wages). Following his criticism of the Centre, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting his assistance in overturning the Centre's decision.

The Centre has accused the AAP government of having ties to the "ration mafia."

The Delhi government announced on Sunday that it had provided food grains to over 4.5 lakh people who did not have ration cards as part of a new scheme in the capital. Starting on June 5, those who do not have a ration card can get five kilogrammes of food grains by showing their Aadhaar card.