New Delhi: The Delhi government has started providing free food to those suffering from the aftermath of demonetization.
Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minster Manish Sisodia says the move is to save the poor from dying of hunger due to demonetization.
The government of Aam Aadmi Party (common man’s party) on December 11 set up centers for food distribution – or langar – at 10 places across Delhi. Sisodia’s party colleague Ashutosh called the plan “humanitarian.”
Long queues were seen at langars in Sikh temples in several cities and towns in northern India. In Delhi, university students have also been seeking out langars as they are short of cash to buy food from their regular cafeterias and roadside stalls.
“After paying our rents, we have run out of cash. No landlord is accepting checks Most of us come together with our books to the gurudwara, and after lunch, we sit together and study here in the compound,” said Neha Vaswani, a second-year literature student.
The manager at a gurudwara in Moti Bagh said the langar has catered to many students staying as paying guests near their colleges. “We are glad to help them,” said the Moti Bagh gurudwara manager Kashmir Singh.
It has been over a month since the acute cash shortage began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprung the high-value currency ban on the country on the night of November 8.
After the ban, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal alleged that the move was a “huge scam” by Modi’s National Democratic Alliance government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people’s party). He also alleged that the BJP and some other players had been informed before demonetization. In addition, he noted significant misreporting on the money deposits made at banks.
“In previous quarters, deposits in banks were negative. But in the July-to-September quarter, such large amounts were being deposited in the banks. Who did all this money belong to?” he asked last month.