CALL it people power. On republic Day this year, 500-odd residents of Sundar Nagri gathered and resolved that they would collect their rations from the Public Distribution System (PDS) shops, only if the government would give it to them ‘‘with dignity’’.
On Saturday, an impromptu checking of records for the month of February of all the 12 ration shops in the area revealed that every single entry has since been in order.
This, after a survey about one-and-half-year ago had revealed that 93-97 per cent PDS supplies were being siphoned off and not reaching the people meant for.
The Republic Day resolution came after an activist of the Delhi-based NGO, Parivartan, whose application under the Right to Information Act had revealed the ongoing malpractices, was attacked by miscreants in December.
About a week back, two ration shopowners were arrested in connection with the incident.
‘‘About 300 residents had gathered on Saturday for the checking and some 60-70 people, including those who don’t take this ration, checked the entries,’’ said Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan.
Around 9,700 families collect ration from the 12 shops in question. About 4,500 of them had regularly collected their rations for February. The triumphant note in Kejriwal’s voice is hard to miss: ‘‘This is a victory like no other because this is the first time the government had thrown its records open for public inspection without an RTI application. This shows that they have the capacity for good governance, just the will is missing.’’
Meena Kumari, a resident who had gone to check her records at the local ration shop, said: ‘‘Earlier we were getting less than the allotted share of 25 kg wheat and 10 kg rice. But now even after I had not collected my rations for February in protest against the attack, all of that has been carried over. We have started collecting rations once more.’’
But there are other concerns too. Kejriwal says if such disciplining is possible in Sundar Nagri, ‘‘why can’t it be done for the rest of Delhi? And the apparent order should not be a one-off case, it has to last’’.
That seems to be a tough ask. Lakshmi, another resident who had participated in the register-checking exercise, said the records were in order, but today when she went to collect her rations, the shopkeeper allegedly threatened her and said that now that ‘‘I have hitched myself onto Parivartan, the quantity of rations given to me would be further curtailed. I fought and got my due, but I don’t know how long this will last’’.