SC order slap on Cong govt: Nitin Gadkari

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the Supreme Court’s order directing the Central Government to arrange free distribution of food grain to the poor instead of letting it rot, is a ?slap? on Congress-led UPA government.

?The apex court’s order is a slap on the Congress government, which sought to defy the court’s directive unsuccessfully argued, “It is not possible to implement the Supreme Court’s order”. Union Agriculture Minister had also said that this was just a suggestion by the court,? said Gadkari.

?In a clear snub to the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the apex court in its order today has told the Additional Solicitor General, ?Tell your minister that free distribution is our order not a suggestion by us?.

?Today’s development is a vindication of the stand taken by the BJP that the Central Government was a mute spectator to the criminal wastage of huge quantity of food grain rotting in the open in various parts of the country due to lack of storage capacity,? he said.

The BJP in the last six months had launched a nation-wide campaign against the callousness of the authorities in handling the country’s precious food reserves.

?The Team-BJP made surprise visits at 22 places in 6 states – Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, U.P., Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra – and found to their dismay that a huge quantity of food grains was getting rotten in the open exposing the tall claims of the UPA government that the country’s food reserves were safe & secured,? Gadkari said.

The Team-BJP on Tuesday organised a picture expose’ on “A tale of criminal wastage of food grain” at the party headquarters in New Delhi. The party plans to take this campaign to different parts of the country and mobilise public opinion against the UPA government’s utter mismanagement on the food front.

As Pawar sought to interpret the Supreme Court?s order for free distribution of food grains to poor rather than let it rot in godowns as a ?suggestion?, the apex court on Tuesday affirmed that it was an ?order?.

?It was not a suggestion. It is there in our order. You tell the Minister,? the court told the government counsel.

The apex court, earlier this month, had asked the government to distribute free food grains to the poor instead of letting the food grains rot in the godowns.

Pawar had claimed that such a step won?t be possible and had said that the Supreme Court?s statement was a suggestion, and not an order.

A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Verma clarified that it did pass such an order.

The apex court directed the Union government to conduct a fresh survey of the BPL/ABPL/AAY beneficiaries on the basis of the figures available for 2010 as relying on a decade-old data bank was not feasible.

The bench further said that the government must take urgent steps to prevent further rotting of food grains while maintaining that it must procure only that much quantity which it can preserve.

The bench reiterated its earlier order that persons above poverty line shall not be entitled to subsidised food grains but if the government was determined to extend the benefit, the same shall be given to those families whose annual income is below Rs. 3 lakhs.