The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the AAP government to ensure that all the persons who did not get ration despite having e-coupons be provided ration by Thursday evening.
The direction was issued by a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad on a PIL by a law student alleging that thousands of needy people in the national capital are not getting ration under the public distribution system (PDS) despite having e-coupons issued by the Delhi government.
Advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, who appeared for the law student, said that the bench rejected Delhi government's request for a week's time to deliver the rations and directed that it be delivered by Thursday evening.
In the hearing held through video conferencing, the high court also gave the petitioner liberty to move a freshplea if the direction is not complied withby the government.
Advocate Manoj, who appeared for the Food Corporation of India in the matter, confirmed that a direction was passed for providing ration by Thursday evening.
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The detailed order is yet to be made available.
With the direction, the bench disposed of the petition by third year law student Shabnam, who had said that the Delhi government announced that e-coupons can be obtained by filling up a simple form online.
However, the form is not simple and and the website for applying for an e-coupon has crashed, the petition had said.
"Whenever the website is accessed, it permanently shows the message 'server under heavy load! Please check after some time'. Moreover, most poor people cannot apply online as most do not have smart phones and there are no cyber cafes functioning during the lockdown," it had said.
"They need to have the ability to access the internet, have a mobile phone to generate an OTP, upload a photo of their Aadhaar card and a photo of their family, and finally, download the e-coupon. This makes the system inaccessible for the poorest and marginalised who need rations," it had added.
The petitioner had also claimed that she collected data from the PDS shops about the poor people who were denied ration despite having e-coupons and prepared a list which was forwarded to the LG's office and Delhi government officials as a representation.
However, no action has been taken by the authorities till date, the petition, filed through advocates Kriti Kumari and Kamlesh Mishra, had claimed.
It had sought directions to the Delhi government to ensure appropriate quantity of rations as per the norms is immediately dispersed and distributed to the needy persons, including those having e-coupons but have not received foodgrain.
It had also sought a direction to the Delhi government to ensure there is adequate stock at the ration/PDS shops.
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