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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Glare on ration data

Glare on ration data

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published Published on Apr 21, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 21, 2011
The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for sticking to the below-poverty-line estimates of the 1991 census in distributing PDS grain when preliminary figures for the 2010-11 census, showing a much higher number of BPL families, are available.

The judges also criticised the income cap fixed by the government to determine families below the poverty line (BPL) by suggesting it was outdated.

The 1991 census showed 36 per cent of the population fell in the BPL category, a figure thought to be higher now as the population has increased in the past 10 years. “How can you fix that (BPL families) at 36 per cent of the population? It is astonishing. You can’t rely on the census of 1991 to say this is the percentage,” the bench of Justices Daveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, monitoring the PDS system, said.

“We have an affidavit from all states, including Congress-ruled states, which say the (BPL) figures are larger. They have calculated it on the same parameters,” the bench said.

Under central norms, any family with a daily income of Rs 20 in urban areas and Rs 17 in villages is deemed BPL. But with the population going up by over 18 crore in the past 10 years alone, the number of BPL families has gone up too. Some states have claimed that and demanded higher grain allocations.

“How can you justify this?” the bench said, questioning the unrealistic income limits and asking the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission to file an affidavit within a week explaining how the cap had been fixed. This is possibly the first time the plan panel has been asked to give such an explanation. The court scheduled the next hearing for May 10.

Most states have sought more grain but the Centre says it will make the allocations based only on the 1991 figures. “You have a bumper crop, your godowns are overflowing. But people must get the benefit,” Justice Bhandari told additional solicitor-general Mohan Parasaran.

Last year, too, the apex court had rapped the Centre for letting grain rot in warehouses while the poor starved.

The Telegraph, 21 April, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110421/jsp/nation/story_13881643.jsp


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