Can Benefits Of Atma Nirbhar Scheme Be Extended To Those Without Ration Cards During Lockdown? Karnataka High Court Asks Centre, State

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said "It is pointed across the bar that in the first wave of pandemic and lockdown, the orders passed by this Court on 11th June 2020 and 2nd July 2020 note that under the Atma Nirbhar Scheme of the Government of India, a person who is not holding a ration card of any State was entitled to get free ration of 5 kg. of rice and 1 kg. of channa per person per month. We direct both the Governments to take a call on the issue of whether the benefits of Atma Nirbhara Scheme as applicable last year can be extended to those who are not holding a ration card of any State. Appropriate decision taken by the Governments shall be placed on record within a period of one week from today."

Advocate M N Kumar appearing for the Central Government placed on record a copy of the Press Information Bureau publication of 23rd April 2021, in which it is mentioned that "With regard to distribution of food grains, Government of India, has decided to allocate free of cost food grains at 5 Kgs, per person, per month to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) over and above NFSA Food grains for next two months i.e. May and June 2021 on the same pattern as the earlier "Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)".

It also noted that "Under this Special scheme (PM-GKAY) around 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries covered under both the categories of NFSA, namely Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Householders (PHH) will be provided with an additional quota of free of cost food grains (Rice/wheat) at a scale of 5 Kgs per person, per month, over and above their regular monthly entitlements under NFSA.

The court said "This decision of the Government of India will have to be implemented in the State of Karnataka and therefore, we direct the State Government to take immediate steps to implement the said decision."

Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadgi assured the court that depending upon the situation, the State Government will consider whether apart from the facility of providing cooked food through Indira Canteens, ration kits can be made available to vulnerable sections of the society.

Following which the court said "There is already an order passed by this Court directing the State Government to identify the vulnerable sections of the society who have been affected by the partial lockdown. As far as implementation of the scheme through Indira Canteens is concerned, before the next date, the State Government shall place on record the necessary details in terms of number of beneficiaries. The data shall be district-wise.

The court again directed the state government to take a decision on restoring Dasoha helpline. "The reason is that if such a helpline is created, the State Government will immediately know who are the persons who are deprived of the benefits of the scheme of the State Government of supplying cooked food as well as the scheme of the Central Government to which we have made a reference earlier," the court said.