Bombay HC asks Maharashtra govt to begin process on ration card applications in tribal areas; no deadline set

Swati Deshpande | TNN | May 1, 2020, 15:53 IST

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to initiate the process of issuing ration cards to eligible people in tribal areas in Thane, Palghar and other parts of the state after the government informed it that it is supplying food to those holding ration cards.
The order was in a public interest litigation filed by activist Vivek Pandit that sought urgent orders from the court for provision of food supply and other essential equipment to 16 sensitive project areas in Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Melghat and Kinwat (project Aurangabad).
The case in the petition is that the extremely impoverished adivasis, tribals and others in these areas are not receiving adequate supplies of essential food and medicine, especially, as Pandit’s counsel Nitin Pradhan said, children going to tribal schools as they are not getting the free meals.
The state government represented by pleader Priyabhushan Kakade said it has started a Shiv Bhojan Scheme in the Palghar district during the lockdown and is providing food to those with ration cards and for those without ration cards food packets are being given with help of NGOs.
An affidavit by the Palghar District supply officer SM Aihire said that the food supply inspectors have been asked to contact complainants personally during the lockdown and supply them food grains, if they had been left out. Kakade said the state is working with very limited workforce and issuing ration cards will not be easy. The HC bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan adjourned the matter after two weeks and while asking the state to process applications for ration cards placed no deadline.
Under the present system, a ration card holder can collect ration from any shop irrespective of his address. In Palghar, he said employment Guarantee Schemes have not been stopped even during lockdown and over 1000 works employing over 12500 workers were done in April 2020.