Food & Beverage News;Mumbai Bureau, Monday, November 08, 2010
The Central Information Commission has directed the Delhi government to make public on its website the reasons for not distributing free ration to all the BPL card holders.
The order came on an appeal filed by a below poverty line card holder Ram Rekha Prasad Gupta who was not allocated quota to ration despite being allotted a card in January 2010.
A resident of Okhla, Gupta filed an RTI application with the food supplies and consumer department seeking reasons for not allocating ration to him. On not receiving a satisfactory reply, he reached the Central Information Commission with an appeal.
He also claimed that he was not the only person who had been denied ration meant for people under the BPL category but many of his fellow residents were also not getting the benefits of the scheme.
Gupta alleged that no one in his locality was getting kerosene against their BPL ration card.
"The Commissioner, Food and Supplies Department, will inform the appellant and the Commission the reasons why some people are being allocated rations and the appellant is not being allocated any rations before November 15, 2010," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said in his order.
Exercising his powers under the Right to Information Act, Gandhi directed the department to display on its website names of persons who have been given the BPL cards but were not entitled to receive supplies of food grains and kerosene along with the reasons.
He said the directive had to be complied before November 30, 2010, as obligation under Section four of the RTI Act which mandated proactive disclosure of information on part of public authority to increase transparency in the governance.
Gandhi instructed the department to intimate him the compliance of the order through e-mail and the address of the web page where these details would be uploaded.
.JPG)
.JPG)
