Free foodgrain scheme not reaching all of India’s poor: SC-appointed panel

A Supreme Court-appointed committee has warned six states of punitive action if they fail to provide adequate subsidised foodgrains to the poorest of the poor under the Centre’s National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Published on: Aug 31, 2016, 24:27:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A Supreme Court-appointed committee has warned six states of punitive action if they fail to provide adequate subsidised foodgrains to the poorest of the poor under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

In letters written to the chief secretaries of six states, the commissioners pointed out that “denial of entitlement under the scheme amounts to violation of fundamental rights”. (HT photo)

Harsh Mander and NC Saxena, special commissioners to the court, found that the number of beneficiaries under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) – a scheme for distributing subsidised food to poorest of the poor – has come down in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Delhi and West Bengal after implementation of the NFSA.

This ran contrary to the law enacted by the erstwhile UPA government.

Under the AAY scheme, around 2.5 crore households across the country are entitled to 35 kg of foodgrains every month.

In letters written to the chief secretaries of six states, the commissioners pointed out that “denial of entitlement under the scheme amounts to violation of fundamental rights”. They also said there was a shortfall in the coverage due to confusion regarding the “ceiling in the scheme”.

Mander and Saxena said the confusion was due to a notification by the Centre, which reduced the number of beneficiaries. But, all the entitlements under scheme were restored in October.

“Any arbitrary denial of entitlements would be a violation of SC orders, NFSA and legal rights of the beneficiaries,” the letter said

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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