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While hearing a plea regarding problems faced by migrant labourers and unorganised sector workers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday flagged the contradictory stance of certain States when it comes to seeking benefits from Centre based schemes.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh orally remarked that certain states in India claim that they have a very high per capita income when they want to project their development but when it comes to seeking benefits from the Centre with respect to food security schemes, those same States claim that 70 percent of their population is poor. Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for the petitioner, pertinently submitted that out of the 30 crore people who have applied for issuance of Ration Card on the Centre's' E-Shram Portal, 8 crore have not been issued the same yet. The States claim that they have exhausted the quota to provide ration and food to the eligible poor under their scheme is discriminatory as many earlier eligible applicants have been issued the ration cards, argued Bhushan. He stated that the quota set by the States to provide subsidised ration to the poor is based on the 2011 population census. "If the census was done in 2021, 10 crore more people would have been eligible (for ration cards)...Union of India has increased the funds for other schemes like Ayushman Bharat scheme", Bhushan added. He argued that the right to food is a right provided under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and that the states cannot discriminate by not providing ration cards to new applicants under the relevant scheme. After hearing Bhushan's submissions at length, the Court asked the Central government to come up with an effective mechanism to provide ration cards to the poor. "Let us make sure that- what can be an effective mechanism to provide ration cards to the poor", Justice Surya Kant said to ASG Aishwarya Bhati who appeared for the Centre. "We ensure that poor people (including Below Poverty Line)- they are provided ration at subsidised rate", added the top court judge. The Court also agreed with Bhushan's assertion that the issue is genuine and providing food to the people is a Right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Court listed the matter to be heard next on April 4 after SGI Tushar Mehta requested for the same. (ANI)
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