New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the AAP government to give road map for ensuring that the needy and non-PDS beneficiaries are provided with adequate dry ration amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh also asked the government to give bullet points of all the work done by it till now in this regard and listed the matter for further hearing on October 22.

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The court was hearing an application by an NGO, 'Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan', which had challenged the government's non-PDS guidelines putting an ‘arbitrary' limit of 20 lakh beneficiaries for providing dry ration.

The NGO said foodgrain be provided to all the needy persons and sought direction to the AAP government to modify the May 27 guidelines to the extent that it should not be a mere one-time relief measure and that the beneficiaries may receive dry ration (foodgrains) for every calendar month until further orders.

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Delhi government additional standing counsel Anju Aggarwal submitted that the cap has been done away with in pursuance to the court's June 25 order.

“We are ensuring that nobody sleeps hungry and besides dry ration, people are also provided with cooked meals,” he said.

On June 25, the court had expressed confidence that the Delhi Government will rise-up to its responsibility of providing adequate food grain to the requisite number of beneficiaries, especially in the distressing circumstances in which several residents of Delhi find themselves.

Advocate Prasanna S, representing the NGO, claimed that stocks were not readily available for non-PDS beneficiaries.

DSLSA secretary Kanwal Jeet Arora submitted that they have done recee at hunger relief centres but could not do recee of non-PDS category people since they do not know where they reside.

He said they have got to know from fair price shops that ration is also being provided to non-PDS beneficiaries but whether it is being given to all or not, it could not be ascertained.

The application has been filed by the NGO in its pending petition challenging the decision to link ration cards with Aadhaar.

Meanwhile, the court modified its April 27, 2020 order by which it was directed that all fair price shops in Delhi shall remain open on all seven days of the week.

The advocate representing the fair price shop dealers said since the pandemic situation is not so grave now as it was at the time when the order was passed, they be given a day's off.

The court modified its order to the effect that the fair price shops will have one day weekly off as the pandemic situation is not so grave as it was on April 27, 2020.

“So weekly off is permitted to fair price shops in accordance with the law,” the bench said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)