In a major order to provide food to the poor and destitute during summer, the Supreme Court today ordered the Centre to release to states double their quota of grains and cash under the Prime Minister’s Sampoorn Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) for May, June and July.Under SGRY, every year the Centre releases Rs. 5000 crore and five million metric tonnes of grains to the states. Under the present directive, the scheme would be increased to Rs. 10,000 crore and 10 million metric tonnes of grain and the quota for the three months would be calculated on pro-rata basis and released monthly.This interim order was passed by a bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice H.K. Sema on a petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) after hearing counsel Colin Gonsalves and Aparna Bhat for petitioners and additional solicitor general Mukul Rohtagi for the Government.This order was passed in view the recommendations of a high-level committee appointed by the Ministry of Food.Directing the Centre to file an affidavit by July 15 on it’s opinion regarding the recommendations, the bench said ‘‘We direct that on pro-rata basis the recommendation — that present SGRY scheme be expanded or or at least doubled — be implemented both in regards to grain as also cash for the months of May, June and July.’’To ensure that the states also took steps to implement the order, the bench said ‘‘the state governments shall lift these allocations and ensure that the same reaches those for whom it is meant.’’However, the bench said that if after July it was found that the allocations under the SGRY scheme as it existed today was adequate, it would consider adjusting the additional allocations against the yearly quota of the states.
