'Free distribution of foodgrain an order, not suggestion': SC
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COMMENTS 
The Supreme Court reminds Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that its recent ruling that rotting foodgrain be distributed free among the poor was an ‘order’, not a ‘suggestion’ as interpreted by the minister
Taking exception to a recent statement by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Supreme Court, on August 31, 2010, asserted that it had ordered the free distribution of foodgrain to the poor instead of allowing it to rot in godowns, and that this was not a mere suggestion as has been made out by him.
A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Verma, referring to newspaper reports that the Union minister had claimed there was no such order, clarified that it had indeed passed such an order. “It was not a suggestion. It is there in our order. You tell the minister,” the court told government counsel. Pawar is reported to have said: “The Supreme Court’s suggestion (for free grain) is not possible to implement.”
The Bench added that the government must take urgent measures to prevent the further rotting of foodgrain, while maintaining that it should procure only as much as it could store. The Bench reiterated its earlier order that people above the poverty line should not be entitled to subsidised foodgrain, but that if the government was determined to extend the benefit the same should be given to families whose annual income is below Rs 3 lakh.
It also directed the Union government to conduct a fresh survey of BPL/ABPL/AAY beneficiaries on the basis of figures available for 2010, and said the authorities could not rely on decade-old data to extend the benefits.
The Supreme Court, on August 12, asked the Centre to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the country’s hungry poor instead of allowing it to rot in Food Corporation of India godowns. The Bench passed the direction while dealing with a PIL filed by civil rights group PUCL on rampant corruption in the public distribution system (PDS) and the rotting of foodgrain in FCI godowns.
Earlier, the apex court had asked the government to consider suggestions for disbanding PDS supply to above the poverty line (APL) families and restricting the benefit to BPL families and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme beneficiaries.
However, the Centre, in an affidavit, said it was extending PDS supplies to APL families only after the requirements of BPL/AAY beneficiaries had been met.
It also mentioned in the affidavit that a taskforce, headed by the director general of the National Informatics Centre, had been set up on August 9 comprising representatives of the Department of IT, UIDAI, Department of Food and Public Distribution, FCI and the food secretaries of selected states/UTs as members.
Source: The Hindu, August 31, 2010
The Indian Express, August 31, 2010
Press Trust of India, August 31, 2010