NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, APRIL 23
Every citizen, who do not own ration cards, can get grocery kit bag sold at a rate of Rs. 500 through PDS outlets across the state during lockdown, the state government informed the Madras High Court on Thursday.
The submission was made in a counter-affidavit before a special bench comprising justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Nirmal Kumar on a PIL seeking a direction to the government for door delivery of the kits.
The kit comprising 19 basic essentials like pulses, oil, tamarind, chillies and spices in fixed quantities can be bought by all public and there was no need for producing ration card or any other identification proof, the counter said.
Advocate A P Suryaprakasam, in his public interest litigation petition, has submitted that not only the poor but even the middle class people were suffering due to the lockdown. Therefore, essential supplies should also be provided to all the needy without insisting on ration card. The government has launched the kits in a bid to ensure there was no shortage of essential commodities during the lockdown.