Create More Employment, How Long You Provide Free Facilities! On which scheme of the Central Government did the Supreme Court Say This?
Supreme Court On Employment Issue: The Supreme Court of India on Monday (09th December, 2024) stressed on providing employment options and capacity building for citizen who have been getting free ration since the time of the Covid pandemic and asked question “for how long can free facilities can be provided.”
SC To Center On Providing Free Ration Scheme
The bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Manmohan was remained stunned when the Center government told the Supreme Court that under the National Food Security Act, 2013, 81 crore citizen are being given free or subsidized ration. The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing from the Center, “This means that only taxpayers are left out of it.”
Till when free facilities can be provided
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing from an NGO in a case related to the employment and food problems and similar condition of migrant laborers during the covid epidemic in the year 2019, said that there is a need to issue directions to provide free ration to all migrant workers registered on the “e-Shram” website. The bench said, “Till when free facilities can be given? Why don’t we work for job options, employment and capacity building for these workers citizen?”
On Government Free Scheme SC Says
Bhushan said that from time to time, instructions have been given by the court to all the states and union territories to issue ration cards to migrant so that they can avail the free ration provided by the Center. He said that the latest order states that those who do not have ration cards but are registered on the “e-shram” website will also be provided free ration from the Center government.
Justice Suryakant said that, “This is the major problem raised after covid. The moment we direct the states to issue free ration to all workers, not a single migrant will be available here. They will go back. States can issue ration cards to attract people because they know very well that it is the responsibility of the Center authority to provide free ration.” Bhushan said that if the census had been done in 2021, the number of migrant workers must have increased, as the Center is currently dependent on the data of the 2011 census.
SC To Center On Freebies Scheme
The bench further said, “We do not want to create a variation between the Center and the states, otherwise it will become very complex.” Mehta said that the orders of this court were mainly for the time of covid. The Solicitor General said that at that time, this court had passed orders on daily basis to provide assistance to workers who were facing the crisis.
‘SC Says Cannot rely on NGO data’
He said the government is bound by the 2013 Act and cannot go beyond the statutory yojana. Mehta further said there were some NGOs that did not work on the ground level during the pandemic and he can state that in the affidavit that the petitioner NGO is one of them. During the hearing, there was a heated debate happened between Mehta and Bhushan as the Solicitor General said the court should not rely on the data provided by an NGO “which was busy drafting the petition and filing it in the Supreme Court instead of providing relief to citizen.”
Supreme Court Verdict On Center Free Ration Yojana
Bhushan says that Mehta was very angry with him because he had released some emails regarding him, which had a detrimental effect. Mehta also replied back that, “I never thought Bhushan will go to such a low level, but since he has raised the issue of emails, he needs to respond. Those emails were considered by the honorable court. When someone tries to harm the government or the country, then it is committed to object to such filed petitions.” Justice Suryakant tried to convince both party and said that the case of migrant citizen needs a brief hearing and listed it for 8th January. The supreme court has marked it on 26th November date to hear the difficulties associated with the distribution of free ration and said that the time of Covid was different when relief was given to suffered migrant workers.