By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kozhikode: The Supreme Court order against distributing food grains to those above the poverty line through the Public Distribution System will lead to price-rise in the country, said PI Noushad, state general secretary of the Solidarity Youth Movement. The organization asked the government to make legislation strengthening the PDS in order to defend the price-rise as a result of the court order.
Mr Noushad said that the court order would make the lives of people who are fed up with price-rise more difficult. The court made such an order as food grains were piled up for long in the storages and rotten. So the government too cannot wash its hands off the responsibility. The PDS has been responsible to defend the soaring price-rise to some extent. Conditions favourable for such an order were created by a planned conspiracy to destroy the PDS. The organisation also called on the government to make a legislation to strengthen the PDS and thus put a check on price-rise.
The Kerala government has decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the order to limit the supply of subsidized food grains to the BPL category alone. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan told media persons that the wrong PDS policies of the central government led to the court order. The exclusion of the APL from the PDS would adversely affect Kerala, where the Statutory Universal Rationing System has been in practice for the past several decades. The state Food Minister had earlier expressed his concern that nearly 5 million families would lose the benefit of the PDS in the food-deficit state. The government has also decided to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the further measures to be taken in the regard.
The Solidarity is a youth organisation sponsored by the state Jamat e Islami which takes up social, cultural and environmental issues. The organisation is in the forefront in the struggle against the acquisition of 45 metres for National Highway instead of the 30 metres already agreed upon in the all-party meeting. The acquisition of 45 metres would make lakhs homeless and would lead to the destruction of farmlands.