After removing the Aam Aadmi Party and taking power, the BJP government in Delhi began a search for Rohingyas. Following that, several settlements were demolished and pushbacks occurred. Now, the government led by Rekha Gupta has started cleaning up the ration system across the capital. At the very start of this process, more than 7 lakh ration cards have been dropped.
In Delhi, issuing new ration cards had been suspended for 13 years. The BJP government is now restarting that process. However, before issuing new ration cards, an audit of the old cards was conducted. In that audit, 7.72 lakh illegal ration cards were cancelled. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta stated that after the audit, the government found 6,46,123 names whose income exceeded the government-set limit. Additionally, nearly 95,000 beneficiaries had not taken rations for over a year. More than 6,000 ration cards of deceased persons were also active. The Delhi government has decided to cancel all those ration cards.
Ration services have an income ceiling. Those whose income exceeds that ceiling do not receive all ration services. The amount of food grains one receives is determined based on income. The audit in Delhi revealed that more than 6.46 lakh beneficiaries had illegally crossed the income ceiling to avail benefits. Therefore, their cards were cancelled. At the same time, the income limit for receiving ration services has been raised. Previously, the income ceiling for receiving rations in Delhi was 1.2 lakh rupees. That is, if a family’s annual income was 1.2 lakh rupees, they could get rations. However, to benefit the poor, the state government has now increased the income ceiling to 2.5 lakh rupees.
Rekha Gupta said that the vacancies created by the cancellation of over 7.5 lakh ration cards will be filled. Therefore, after 13 years, new applicants can apply to receive rations. However, she also made it clear that the entire process is aimed at purification.
