Click to play videoNew Delhi: At least 10 per cent ration cards in the national capital are bogus and many held by people who are anything but poor, a prominent Right to Information activist has claimed.
As many as 1,70,598 ration cards in the city are bogus, says Arvind Kejriwal. His investigation found that multiple cards have been issued for the same addresses and same persons.
For instance, 901 cards have been issued in the name of a woman called Manju in Badarpur. In fact, 133 people in Badarpur have more than 15 ration cards each. Najafgarh was found to have the maximum number of bogus cards at 17,016 followed by mahipalpur at 12,611 and Bawana at 11,887.
Kejriwal alleges the bogus cards are in the possession of ration shop owners, who are part of citywide racket. “All this indicates involvement of bigger players—there is one person who actually owns these shops and he has put others as the face,” Kejriwal told a press conference on Monday.
Kejriwal claims that rations are regularly drawn on these cards. Based on the standard allowance of 25 kgs of wheat and 10 kgs of rice per card, 2 lakh tonnes of wheat and 82,000 tonnes of rice may have been diverted on these cards in the last four years. By conservative estimates it means subsidy amounting to almost Rs 257 crore have been siphoned off.
The Government admits it know about the scam. "We knew about this diversion. Diversion in the public distribution system is a known fact," said Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Haroon Yusuf.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
