New Delhi: Despite a year having passed since the Delhi high court ordered that statutory rules and various other aspects pertaining to the implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013 be put into place, the Delhi government has not complied with the directions. During a hearing in the case at the Delhi high court on Thursday, the Delhi government sought more time to commit to a time frame for implementing the accountability provisions of NFSA.

According to the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, which had filed a Public Interest Litigation regarding the implementation of the NFSA in Delhi, during the last hearing on August 17, the bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao had directed the Delhi government to place before it within four weeks a specific timeline for framing rules related to operationalising the grievance redress and accountability provisions of the NFSA.

Referring to the court order, the Abhiyan said the bench had observed:

We are constrained to take note of the fact that in spite of a detailed order passed by this court on 1st September, 2017, statutory rules and various other aspects pertaining to the implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013 has not been put into place as on date by the respondent / GNCTD.

It added that during the hearing it had pointed out the failure of the Delhi government to constitute a State Food Commission and undertake periodic social audits too.

Despite the clear direction, the Abhiyan said the Delhi government in violation of the court's order did not commit a specific timeline for operationalising the accountability framework. “The counsel for Delhi government appeared and sought further time to file a specific time frame for implementation of the NFSA Rules. The high court observed that despite several opportunities the government had still not made any such rules. To enforce compliance it directed the Delhi government a further time of one week to place on affidavit what steps it was taking to notify them,” a statement issued by the organisation said.

During the hearing on Thursday, the lawyers for Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan also pointed out how a year has passed since the order of the Delhi High Court on September 1, 2017 directing Delhi government to implement the accountability provisions.

The Abhiyan has been stressing the need for implementing the accountability provisions for improving the delivery system under the Public Distribution System.

In the wake of the death of three minor girls due to starvation at Mandawali in July this year, the Abhiyan had also come out with a fact-finding report in which it had stated that various social welfare schemes had failed in the national capital, and if implemented properly, these schemes could have saved the lives of the three sisters.

The Abhiyan had in its report also called for implementing and operationalising the grievance redress and accountability provisions in the National Food Security Act, including carrying out of periodic social audits and setting up of a state food commission.

While demanding that Aadhaar or Aadhaar-enabled biometric authentication not be made mandatory for any food security or social welfare programme as similar provisions have been the cause of several starvation deaths in Jharkhand, it had also cautioned that no untested mechanism like home delivery of rations should be brought in, saying “disruptions in the PDS cause extreme hardship and exacerbate vulnerabilities of marginalised households.”

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