A WEEK after Newsline reported the assault on an NGO activist who was part of an RTI campaign against PDS shopowners, the Delhi government today skirted the issue, saying it was the police’s job to investigate the attack. In its ‘‘clarification’’, the government said it was probing the charges brought against the shopowners.
The first point of government’s response was on the location of the assault. ‘‘The incident happened near the (office of the) assistant commissioner (North district) and not near the Food and Civil Supplies commissioner’s office,’’ Food and Civil Supplies Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said. ‘‘The department has issued a showcause notice-cum-suspension order on the outlet owner. Investigating the assault is not the government’s job, the police is investigating the incident.’’
The minister added that a case under Essential Commodities Act is being tried in the court of assistant commissioner (North-east).
The minister was speaking at a hurriedly-called press conference, with Food and Civil Supplies Commissioner G.S. Pattnaik in tow.
Pattnaik said the department has cancelled the licences of 42 dealers, out of 500 complaints, in the past year. ‘‘But we have taken action as against 404 complaints, right from penalties to suspension,’’ he said.
NGO Parivartan, he said, is ‘‘outside the system’’ and ‘‘wants the department should file an FIR on the basis of its complaint...But that is not possible, as the department has to re-verify facts before lodging an FIR. This is a provision of the law’’.
The Delhi government’s response came a day after the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) - backed by former PM V.P. Singh - decried the attack on Santosh who was working with Parivartan on the PDS campaign. On December 30, youths slashed her throat at Nand Nagari but she managed to escape. Two shopowners named in Santosh’s complaint were let go with a warning the next day.
Parivartan said she had been attacked as she was registering complaints on irregularities in rations given to BPL families in Nand Nagri and other areas. ‘‘Santosh and other members have unearthed 190 complaints by ration card holders where these people were deprived of rations which were siphoned off by corrupt PDS shop owners,’’ Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan had said.
According to a recent data compiled by reputed economist Jean Dreze, more than 39 per cent of the rice and wheat supplied from FCI godowns to PDS shops in 19 states gets siphoned off. In Delhi, 72 per cent of the rice and 65 per cent of the wheat never reaches the people intended for.
The Campaign members have taken up the matter with UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who has asked the Delhi administration to look into the matter.