MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the state government to consider providing an option to ration card holders to receive the Pongal gift of `1,000 directly to their bank accounts, instead of getting it in cash from fair-price shops.
A bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and R Vijayakumar issued the directions based on a PIL filed by Swamimalai Sundara Vimal Nathan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Association in Thanjavur district.
The petitioner stated that disbursing the gift amount by bank transfers would prevent corruption and misuse of the funds by middlemen or officials. He also urged the government to provide jaggery instead of sugar, stating that jaggery is an important ingredient required to prepare sweet pongal.
Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan objected to the petition, stating it would not be feasible to disburse the funds via bank transfers as many beneficiaries do not have bank accounts or may not have linked them with their Aadhaar and PAN cards. He also explained that when the fund is transferred directly to the bank accounts, some beneficiaries may not receive their funds entirely as the bank may deduct charges if the account does not have the minimum balance amount, he argued.
The AAG said jaggery cannot be distributed at this stage as procurement has been finalised and the gift products — rice, sugar and sugarcane — are ready for distribution on January 10. It would be impossible to procure such huge quantities of jaggery for distribution at this stage, the AAG submitted and asked for the petition to be rejected.