Supreme Court once again came heavily upon the attitude of the government towards wastage of grains outside the government warehouses even as millions of people are reeling under hunger and poverty. The court asked the central government to ensure no more waste of food grains and all the targeted beneficiaries are adequately supplied.
Court vs. Govt.Justice Dalveer Bhandari, hearing the Public Interest Litigation filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), asked the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Prasaran, attending for the government, not to go by percentage regarding wastage of grain when Parasaran said the wastage was only 0.07 lakhs but not 0.7 lakhs. He also said he had figures for two states, Punjab & Haryana, viz. 67,539 tonnes almost ten times to that of national figure projected by the government. Even 7,000 tonnes wastage was huge that cannot be allowed, the other judge in the bench Justice Depak Verma added.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had asked the government for distribution of the grain kept outside the warehouses due to lack of space, to the poor as it was getting decayed. The agricultural minister Sharad Powar responded orally it was not possible, but agreed to look into the matter. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went further saying the courts couldn’t interfere in the policy decisions of the government, a comment refused by the apex court telling it did not ask their opinion and it only asked them to deal properly with the question of hungry poor and wastage of grain.
PUCL Petition
The PUCL filed a petition stating that huge corruption was taking place in the Public Distribution System
(PDS). It pointed out although the grain stock is available in huge quantities, proper allocation to the state governments is not being done. It added that at present the government has 22 million tonnes of buffer stock along with 33 million tonnes of stocks in godowns. Even then, only 2.5 million tonnes had been allocated for the PDS, PUCL informed the court of justice.
(PDS). It pointed out although the grain stock is available in huge quantities, proper allocation to the state governments is not being done. It added that at present the government has 22 million tonnes of buffer stock along with 33 million tonnes of stocks in godowns. Even then, only 2.5 million tonnes had been allocated for the PDS, PUCL informed the court of justice. No Space for Kharif Grain
The apex court asked the government how the grain produce for Kharif season can be procured when the godowns are full of old stocks that are supposed to be distributed to the people. The matter was extremely serious when people are dying of hunger even as the godowns are full the court warned, adding the government must have done some evaluation by comparing with the percentage of waste world over. It reminded the government that the matter has been pending for a decade.
It remains to be seen whether the growth-concerned Prime Minister will now be more worried about the court’s interference in his business-friendly policies of the government or be inclined to heed at least now the court’s directive in recognizing the need to feed the poor. Maybe he would like to find another pretext to replace the court’s interference in government’s policies in a bid to defend his growth-figure-oriented policies, who was never voted to parliament directly by the people.
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