New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 6) pulled up defaulter states for the delay in the verification of migrant labourers who are registered on the e-Shram portal.
The court directed the states to complete the exercise within four weeks, as the verification is needed for issuance of ration cards to the migrant labourers, reported the Press Trust of India.
The Supreme Court also directed the Centre to release food grains to the states which have completed the verification process.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah termed the delay as ‘unfortunate’ and said that if the states fail to complete the verification process within a stipulated time, the court would summon the concerned secretaries.
“Why could the verification be not completed in four months. This is too much. After four months you are still doing it and have the audacity to say another two months are required…We hereby direct that the entire verification be completed in four weeks,” the court said, reported PTI.
The Supreme Court made the observations while hearing a petition filed by activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander and Jagdeep Chhokkar, who had sought that ration to the migrant labourers be given irrespective of the quota of ration under the NFSA.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was appearing for the petitioners, submitted that while some states have completed the process of verification, others have not even started the exercise.
“There is also another issue that if ration card is issued, these states are not issuing rations to these workers and they say that central government has not allocated them additional ration for these people,” Bhushan said, reported PTI.
Official figures from the affidavits of states show that most of them have high rejection rates and the fact that the Indian government is yet to file an affidavit with details of how much additional allocation has been made to each state under NFSA.
The figures provided by the petitioners indicated that very few ration cards have been allocated states such as Maharashtra. In Madhya Pradesh, only 16 per cent verification has been completed while Uttar Pradesh has done only five per cent verification.
The court on Tuesday (July 16) praised the states of Bihar and Telangana for ensuring 100 per cent verification.
In March this year, the Supreme Court had ordered states and Union Territories to provide ration cards to about eight crore migrant workers registered in the eShram portal but not covered under the National Food Security Act within two months.
The same order was issued by the apex court in April 2023. It had said, “Without a ration card a migrant/unorganised labourer or his family members may be deprived of the benefit of schemes and even benefits under the National Food Security Act.”
The matter will be next heard on August 27.
