Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat made a controversial comment on big families by giving an example of ration distribution made per unit at a function in Ramnagar (Nainital) on Sunday.

After getting heavily trolled for commenting on woman wearing ripped jeans recently, the new Uttarakhand CM created another flutter by claiming that people with big families getting five kilo ration per head built their own stores and sold it in their neighbourhood.

Without mentioning any community, CM Tirath Rawat narrated ration distribution system, “Every family got 5 kilo ration per head. A family of 10 got 50 kilo ration each, 20 got 100 kg and a two-member family got 10 kg ration.”

Rawat said, “Family with high income have their own store and found customers in their neighbourhood. They never used the fine quality rice received for their daily consumption. Why do you envy the big families getting larger stock of ration? They have 20 members. When you had the chance you too should have extended your family to 20 members for more ration.”

According to sources, there are differences in opinion between the Tirath Rawat and the Central government on the free entry of pilgrims in Kumbh Mela. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, had issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Kumbh. Under it visitors with a negative Covid-19 report, done 72 hours prior to the date of visit, were allowed to enter the Kumbh Mela area.

But some confusion prevails after the recent comment of Rawat in which he claimed that pilgrims should maintain precaution and there are no restrictions. The Covid- 19 situation in Uttarakhand is under control but the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is worried about infection taking place during the Kumbh.

Rajesh Bhushan, Union Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to the chief secretary Uttarakhand strongly highlighting the concerns raised by the high level Central team in its visit to Uttarakhand and about the need of stringent measures to control the spread of Covid during Kumbh Mela.