Friday, October 29, 2010

Supreme Court seeks Centre\'s response on additional foodgrain supply to BPL families

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday inquired of the Centre whether foodgrain quota to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the States could be fixed according to the 2010 population.

A Bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma passed this order after senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the People\'s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), pointed out that approximately seven crore BPL families had been added on the basis of the 2010 population.

Earlier, Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran submitted that Attorney-General (AG) G.E. Vahanvati would be appearing in the matter. He also said that many States had not filed their response.

The Bench, in its order, said the AG would respond on the November 11 hearing as to whether an additional quota of foodgrain could be supplied to States for the remaining seven crore BPL families.

The order said that some States had filed affidavits claiming having adopted Central government parameters, according to which, the BPL population in 2010 was much larger.

It said: "According to the census of India, the country\'s population in 2010 is estimated at 117.67 crore , whereas the population in 1991 was 99.69 crore. The foodgrains distributed in 2010 is on the basis of the 1991 census."

The court wanted to know whether the Centre could supply foodgrains, on the basis of the 2010 population, to seven crore BPL families who had been left out of the PDS.

The Bench pointed out that on August 20, 2001, the Supreme Court had passed an order that foodgrains "which are over-flowing in the storage, especially of the Food Corporation of India [FCI] godowns, and which are in abundance, should not be wasted by being dumpedinto the sea or eaten by rats. Mere schemes without any implementation are of no use. What is important is that the food must reach the hungry."

The court noted that the Centre had filed an affidavit admitting that the FCI had reported 55,121 tonnes of wheat damaged or rendered unfit for human consumption in Punjab and Haryana alone. It was further submitted that 12,418 tonnes of foodgrain in FCI godowns had been damaged as on August 1. These figures do not include the amount of foodgrain damaged in other States."

The Judges said "procurement of adequate foodgrain is essential to providing food security and to protect the interest of the farmers. All through, our anxiety has been that the procured foodgrain be properly preserved. The amount of foodgrain which cannot be preserved because of lack of storing facility, can at least be allocated to the BPL population forthwith."

The court wanted the AG to take instructions on whether the 150 poorest districts in India should also be given the same amount of foodgrain as distributed to the BPL population. The Bench directed the matter to be listed for November 11.
News From: http://www.Time2timeNews.com

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