The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the West Bengal government over its stand against the Centre’s One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme and directed it to implement the scheme immediately “without any excuses”.
“You can not cite one or the other problem. This is for migrant workers,” Supreme Court said.
This scheme allows people to access ration and other items distributed under the Public Distribution System (PDS). However, only three states- Assam, Delhi and West Bengal have not implemented the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.
Assam hasn’t implemented the scheme as it involves linking with the Aadhaar card and the larger population of the state still don’t have Aadhaar as its registration began after the NRC was updated. However, Delhi and West Bengal have not implemented it giving various excuses.
The matter came to light after migrant workers were not able to get the subsidised foodgrains for not having the ration card of the state where they were currently residing.
The Supreme Court’s order has come hours after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Delhi government for not implementing the Centre’s ONORC scheme.
“Arvind Kejriwal should answer why the scheme has not been implemented in Delhi?” asked Prasad lashing out at the Delhi Chief Minister.
