Foodgrain for poor: Pawar attracts apex courts ire

The Supreme Court Tuesday pulled up union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar
for saying that the court had
only made a suggestion and not passed an order on distributing foodgrain “free”
to the poor.
Referring to media reports attributed to Pawar wherein he said that the court
only made a suggestion Aug 12 and
the government would consider it, an apex court bench of Justice Dalveer
Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma
told Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran: “Tell your minister not to
make any such comment.”
The court said: “What we have said is an order and not a suggestion. Let him not
misunderstand our order.”
Taking note of the existence of more than 2.5 lakh bogus ration cards in the
country, the court said: “We have to
develop a culture of zero tolerance towards corruption.”
The court said that unless immediate and urgent steps were taken, the ultimate
effect will be on the poorest citizen
who is deprived of legitimate entitlement to foodgrains.
“We must ensure that every poor person is ensured of two square meals per
day,” the court said.
The court said that it was desirable to abolish the Above Poverty Line (APL)
category.
In case, this was not possible, the government should at least consider limiting it
to households whose annual
income is less than Rs.2 lakhs per year.
The court said that it did not see any “rationale or justification” in providing
subsidised food to card holders
whose annual income is more than Rs.2 lakhs.
The court asked the central government to carry out fresh survey to get the
correct and comprehensive picture of
the people below poverty line (BPL), above poverty line (APL) and beneficiaries of
the Antyodaya Anna Yojana
(AAY). The court said that the survey should be conducted as early as possible.
This would give a “clearer picture of the targeted population in the categories of
APL, BPL and AAY”.
The court said: “It would be desirable to make allocation according to 2010
population estimates.”
A court commissioner in his report informed the court that 50,000 metric tonnes
of wheat has already
deteriorated in government warehouses and was not fit for human consumption.
He also told the court that several lakh metric tonnes of wheat that had been
procured has not been properly
stocked.
Taking note of the report, the court asked the central government to tell it what
steps have been taken to save the
remaining wheat procured by it but has not been property stocked.