How will food reach migrant labourers without ration playing cards, asks Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday requested the Centre the way it meant to take food to crores of migrant labourers who don’t have any ration playing cards.

“How will food reach migrant labourers without ration cards?” a Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and M.R. Shah addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, for the Centre.

The court docket mentioned the schemes rolled out up to now appeared to cowl solely ration card holders.

Ms. Bhati defined that the Centre had stored its finest foot ahead with the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which covers 80 crore poor recognized as beneficiaries underneath the National Food Security Act. The scheme supplies 5 kg of free food grains to each particular person for May and June. It intends to assist the poor tide over the financial disruptions attributable to the pandemic. Eight lakh metric tonnes of food grains have already been given, she added.

“No doubt you [the Centre] are providing food… No doubt some migrant labourers have ration cards… But we are only bothered about those who do not have them. We want to know about your mechanism to identify and provide food for people who do not have ration cards…” Justice Bhushan addressed the federal government aspect.

Ms. Bhati mentioned the Centre was solely answerable for making obtainable or procuring food grains. The States needed to distribute the food inside their territories. The legislation officer mentioned the Centre was prepared to present the States no matter they wished.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who appeared for some activists together with advocate Prashant Bhushan, mentioned the “Centre was leaving them [the poor without ration cards] to the mercy of the States.”

“Those without ration cards cannot be allowed to die… The economic situation is far more dire now,” Mr. Dave mentioned.

Mr. Mehta strongly objected to Mr. Dave’s submissions, saying he was “dramatising” the problem.

In the earlier listening to, Mr. Bhushan had submitted that the Centre had final yr recorded 8 crore migrant staff without ration playing cards. The States had recognized 2.8 crore of them.

At this level, the court docket pulled up the federal government for delaying the completion of a nationwide database to establish and register migrant staff. The creation of the database portal has remained a non-starter for months now.

The authorities mentioned the delay had one thing to do with the “software”. The database would have helped the Centre work in tandem with State governments to establish migrant labourers and supply them well timed welfare in the course of the pandemic.

The authorities aspect mentioned the database can be prepared within the subsequent three or 4 months.

“Why do you need three or four months? You are only preparing a database portal,” Justice Bhushan requested.

Ms. Bhati defined that the portal can be an “end-to-end” one, which might not solely operate as a database but in addition assist in monitoring and monitoring advantages meant for migrant labourers.

“It will be a self-sustaining, self-managing portal,” Mr. Mehta assured.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, for Gujarat, mentioned the State had inaugurated its new database portal for migrant staff on June 8. The court docket requested the Centre to review the “Gujarat model” and see if it could possibly be included nationally.