Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced the launch of the doorstep ration delivery scheme on Monday, claiming that the impoverished will no longer have to queue since high-quality rations will be brought to their homes.
However, Mann stated in a video message that the scheme will be optional for eligible individuals.
Mr Mann said the details of this scheme will be made available shortly.
“The AAP government has decided to start the doorstep delivery of ration scheme. Under the scheme, good quality ration items will be delivered at the beneficiaries’ doorstep and no one will now need to stand in queues or leave his work for this, he said.
“Our officers will make a phone call to the beneficiaries and ration will be delivered at their homes as per their convenience and availability,” said Mr Mann.
He also said that the scheme is optional.
If the ration depot is close to your home, the Punjab chief minister stated, you can get your ration there.
Mr Mann claimed that the Arvind Kejriwal government had initiated a similar programme in Delhi “Unfortunately, it was halted. However, in Punjab, we will apply this programme and run it successfully “..
At an online briefing on Monday, the Delhi chief minister said once the Punjab government implements the policy of doorstep delivery of ration to people, citizens in others states too will “start demanding” it.
Kejriwal also alleged that the BJP-led central government has been trying to “impede” the implementation of this policy in the national capital.
“Time for this idea (doorstep delivery policy) has come. They won’t let it get implemented in Delhi, but it will be implemented in Punjab. And, the whole country will see. All people of this country will demand it. It will see implementation across the country,” Kejriwal claimed.
Mann said it is sad that even 75 years after country’s independence, the poor and common people still have to stand in long queues outside ration depots to get their ration.
In this age of digitalization, various items of daily needs including food items, are delivered at people’s doorsteps at one phone call, he said.
“But on many occasions, poor people, most of whom are daily wagers, have to give up their day’s work for taking ration (from fair price shops). The person who is living hand to mouth, if he has to leave his day’s work to fetch his ration, how sad it is. “I know many elderly women who have to walk two km to get their ration from depots, whose quality is sometimes not that good,” said Mann.
“You (beneficiaries) will get good quality ration, what people commonly consume, what rich consume, you will get the same flour, pulses..,” he said.
Earlier on March 19, Mann, in the first decision of his first Cabinet meeting, threw open 25,000 jobs in various state government departments, including 10,000 in the Police Department.
In last month’s Punjab Assembly polls, the AAP stormed to power, decimating the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party combine and the BJP-Punjab Lok Congress-SAD (Sanyukt) alliance.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
