Delhi govt allows weekly off for ration shop owners

The Delhi government has withdrawn its order asking fair price shops (FPS) to remain open all seven days of the week and in a new directive allowed a weekly off for such shops owners in the city, officials said on Tuesday.

The move comes following the high court directions to allow such ration distribution shop owners to take an off once a week. The Delhi High Court on September 23 in its order said that owners of fair price shops in the city will be permitted by the government to have a weekly off to enable them to function efficiently.

The Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs of the Delhi government on Monday issued an order to implement the high court directives.

"The High Court of Delhi in its order dated 23/9/2021 has modified its earlier order dated 27/04/2021 to the extent that Fair Price Shop owners will be permitted to have a weekly off, to enable them to function efficiently.

''Accordingly, in compliance with the latest directions of the High Court of Delhi, the instructions of the department issued wide order dated 05/05/2020 on the distribution of food grains to beneficiaries on all seven days of the week are hereby withdrawn," the Food and Supply department said in the order. The city has over 2000 fair-price shops. Delhi has 17.77 lakh cardholders and has around 72.78 lakh beneficiaries. According to Delhi government officials, the Delhi High Court in April last year had directed the government to ensure the distribution of food grains from FPS to the needy people on all seven days of the week. "Following the court's order, we had made it mandatory for all fair price shops to operate all seven days of the week. But now since the high court has modified its directions, we have allowed the shop owners to take a weekly off," a senior official of the department told PTI.

The Delhi government distributes free ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) through electronic point of sale devices.

The government has also started the distribution of ration under the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme from July this year.

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