AAP, BJP clash over cancellation of around 3 lakh ration cards

The ruling AAP in Delhi and the opposition BJP locked horns today over the cancellation of 2.9 lakh ration cards, alleging one another of "corruption" and trying to benefit vested interests.

The ruling AAP in Delhi and the opposition BJP locked horns today over the cancellation of 2.9 lakh ration cards, alleging one another of "corruption" and trying to benefit vested interests.

BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta alleged that the Delhi government was trying to hand over ration distribution to private companies to benefit AAP and its workers.

"It is a deep-rooted conspiracy of corruption to help AAP and its workers by giving ration distribution rights to some private company."

He claimed that the identification of fake ration card holders has resulted in saving of 58,000 quintals of wheat and rice, leading to a saving of Rs 7-8 crore per month.

"The aggressive opposition by Kejriwal shows that his party and partymen will be denied benefit due to the cancellation of bogus ration cards," he charged.

The Delhi government yesterday alleged that Food Commissioner Mohanjeet Singh has decided to cancel more than 2.9 lakh ration cards without proper inspection.

Rejecting the government's allegation, Singh had said 2.48 lakh "ineligible" ration card holders have been deleted after following "due process of law".

Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj accused BJP of being "hand-in-glove" with the ration mafia and adopting "anti-poor" character.

It is extremely shocking that the BJP is defending the officers responsible for "large-scale corruption" in ration distribution system in Delhi, he accused.

He claimed that in the month of April, the Delhi government had detected a scam and had asked the lieutenant governor for a probe into it.

"AAP challenges the BJP and their LG to make public what action was taken on the evidence provided by the elected government of Delhi," he said.

A large number of people faced problems in getting their ration due to use of electronic point of sale (e-PoS) machines and the "scam" was detected by the government, he said.

Bhardwaj claimed poor people faced hardships due to failures of e-PoS and charged BJP of "senselessly" favoring it.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)