With assembly elections just four months away, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has fine tuned her administrative machinery to ensure effective implementation of food security scheme which is expected to help Congress retain power in Delhi for the fourth consecutive term.
Dikshit today said the nitty gritty for implementation of the scheme, which will be launched here on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has been finalised and the government is now focusing fine tuning the food grain distribution mechanism.
Sources said UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to launch the scheme in Delhi, which will be the first state to roll it out.
Officials said the chief minister is personally monitoring the preparation for roll out of the scheme, termed by many in the Congress as a "game changer" programme ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.
"I am confident of an effective implementation of the scheme in Delhi. Delhi will be the first state to roll out the scheme. We are fine tuning the administrative machinery for roll out of the scheme," Dikshit told a press conference along with her cabinet colleagues.
She said initially 32 lakh people from vulnerable sections including BPL families, beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana and those having jhuggi ration cards and resettlement colonies ration cards would be covered under the scheme.
"We will ultimately cover 73.5 lakh people, which will be 44 per cent of total population, under the food security scheme. Through implementation of the scheme, we will make Delhi a hunger-free state," she said. As per official figure, Delhi's total population is 1.68 crore.
"Geographically, socially and occupationally vulnerable groups, such as residents of slum, resettlement colonies and rural villages, homeless people, transgenders, single women, children living without protection, rag-pickers, un-skilled construction workers, porters, casual daily wage workers, cycle-rickshaw pullers, un-skilled workers in small household would be eligible to get benefit under the scheme," she said.
She said other households having annual income of less than Rs one lakh would also be eligible to get benefit under the scheme.
