NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and state government to ensure the universal coverage of Food Security for all during the COVID-19 pandemic saying that reports suggest that large sections of poor and vulnerable are not getting food during the lockdown.
The former union minister in his public interest litigation (PIL) contended that there has been an acute food shortage resulting out of the nation-wide lockdown and there is a need for the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 and other measures.
In the matter which is listed for hearing on Tuesday, the politician sought directions from the court that the requirement of ration cards for supply of rations in the Public Distribution System (PDA) be relaxed till the COVID-19 in order to help mitigate the food shortage and prevent deaths.
This Petition, Ramesh said, is being moved in light of the numerous deaths caused due to starvation, many of them being daily wage workers and people from the marginalized communities.
The senior Congress leader said since the commencement of the lockdown, there have been various households, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, who are not covered under the NFSA and are in dire need of rations.
"In the facts and circumstances as stated above, it is most respectfully prayed that this Court may be graciously pleased to issue a writ in the nature of mandamus, or any other writ, order or direction to the Respondents to ensure that the National Food Security Act, 2013 is being implemented rigorously by all States," the petition said.
The Congress leader also sought a direction for the competent authorities to do away with the mandatory requirement of the release of grains against the production of ration cards for the period of the lockdown.
Ramesh has also sought directions from the court clarifying that households would be exempt from Aadhar based biometric authentication for obtaining foodgrains under the Public Distribution System.
He also demanded that the court issues directly to the respondents in order to stop police action on vendors, citizens selling buying essential food items.
He said in his petition that the world is reeling under an unprecedented pandemic emerging out of the coronavirus strain COVID-19 and in order to combat the spread of this pandemic, a lockdown has been imposed by the Union and State Governments.
An alternate remedy, therefore, in these dire circumstances, would take a long time, at the end of which further acute food shortage and wide-scale starvation-related deaths are apprehended, he noted.
He argued that the NFSA was enacted with the vision to ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people, to enable them to live a life with dignity.
"By not ensuring access to food, the State is violating the fundamental right of food guaranteed to citizens, therefore necessitating recourse to the present Petition. Hence, this Petition," he said.