Madras high court clears government's 1,000 cash gift for ‘sugar card’ holders

CHENNAI: Two days after restricting distribution of Rs 1,000 Pongal cash gift to ration card holders belonging to below poverty line, low and middle-income group only, the Madras high court modified its order on Friday and permitted the state to extend the gift to ‘sugar card’ holders also.

“Since a responsible officer has submitted through a sworn affidavit that those with non-priority household only for sugar (NPHH-S) cards also fall under the below poverty line category, we are permitting the government to distribute the cash gift to balance 5,98,772 falling under this category,” a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam said.

The bench passed the order while allowing a modification application moved by the Tamil Nadu government.

When the plea came up for hearing, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that most of the families in NPHH-S category also belonged to economically weaker background.

“The number of such families cannot be arrived at this juncture as the economic indices are not available. Out of 10,11,330 NPHH-S card holders, as on Thursday, 4,12,558 card-holders have received the gift. The balance card holders under this category, most of whom are also from below poverty line category, are adversely affected and are highly disappointed by non-receipt of the benefit,” Narayan said.