Delhi's state food commission not constituted as mandated: Officials

Delhi has not constituted a state food commission and not framed a grievance redressal mechanism as mandated by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday.

There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the capital on the issue.

Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the draft of the Delhi Grievance Redressal Rules pending since 2013 and slammed the city government for the "delay", the officials said.

"Delhi has not constituted a state food commission and not framed a grievance redressal mechanism as mandated by the NFS Act, 2013 even after 10 years. The mechanism and the commission meant to look into critical aspects of transparent and corruption-free implementation of the TPDS (Targeted Public Distribution System) under the NFSA was even ordered to be put in place by the Supreme Court and the high court way back in 2017, within the deadline in 2017 itself," a senior official said.

However, despite the apex court's orders, the government was "sitting on the file" for six years and moved only after a "threat from the Centre that the central assistance under the NFSA will be withheld if the mechanism and commission are not put in place by the end of June," the official said, adding that the city government has "finally submitted the file to this effect to the LG, after an unexplained delay of six years since the file was first moved".