High Court puts Punjab on notice on plea against retention of wheat stock

Chandigarh, December 1

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put the state of Punjab on notice on a petition alleging that it unilaterally decided to retain nearly 10 per cent of the stocks issued by the Government of India for distribution under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana-VII.

The notice for March 16 next by Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj of the HC came on a petition filed against the state of Punjab and other respondents by NFSA Depot Holders Welfare Association through counsels Vijay K Jindal and Vipul Jindal.

The association was seeking the quashing of a part of the memo dated November 7, whereby the state and other respondents decided to allocate 212269.53 MT of wheat under the scheme, instead of 236511.495 MT actually allotted/delivered by respondent (Union of India) for distribution among the beneficiaries. Directions were also sought for holding that the petitioner-association members were entitled to wheat as allotted by the Government of India.

As the matter came up for preliminary hearing, Justice Bhardwaj asserted the counsel appearing on the petitioner’s behalf, among other things, contended that the Government of India had issued additional wheat stock for distribution in terms of its policy. But the Punjab Government unilaterally decided to retain nearly 10 per cent of the stocks and was not distributing the same to the public distribution system.