E-Paper
HC notice on plea from Punjab depot holders on wheat allocation
Punjab and Haryana high court sought response from Punjab government, Centre on a plea from state depot holders who alleged cut of 10% in wheat allocation to them for distribution
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday sought response from Punjab government and Centre on a plea from state depot holders, who have alleged a cut of 10% in wheat allocation to them for the distribution to beneficiaries by the state government.
The high court bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj sought response by March 16 on the plea from NFSA Depot Holders Welfare Association, who have network of 17000 fair price shops across the state. The state government has lifted the entire quantity from Centre but kept a portion without any authority and imposed a cut of 10 percent on the allocation of wheat to them, the plea said.
The plea seeks quashing of November 7 memo from the state government as per which it decided to allocate 2.12 lakh metric tonnes wheat under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana to depot holders instead of 2.36 lakh metric tonnes, which they claimed has actually been allotted or delivered to the state for distribution among beneficiaries by the Centre. The association said depot holders are entitled to allocation of wheat as has been allocated by the Centre. Moreover, there are a total of 1.57 crore beneficiaries and each person has to be given 5kg of wheat per month free of cost. If all beneficiaries are to be covered, the allocation would not be possible, it said.
