Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging a Tamil Nadu‘s Government decision to provide financial assistance of ₹2,000 each to about 60 lakh families living Below Poverty Line in the state, holding that there was no irregularity or arbitrariness in the government’s move.

Madras High Court Bench Justices S Manikumar and Subramaniam Prasad asserted that ‘It was a policy decision of the government to provide special financial help to the poor and those affected by the recent Gaja cyclone and drought and cannot be interfered with’.

The petition filed by NGO, ”Satta Panchayat Iyakka” stated in its plea, ‘ the number of below poverty line families are given by the government was inflated and sought a direction against the disbursement of the amount till the correct figure was arrived at based on authentic data.’

Earlier this week on Monday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced in the state assembly that the special assistance of ₹2,000 each would be given to about 60 lakh BPL families across the state, keeping in mind the impact of Gaja cyclone as well as the prevailing drought conditions.

However, the state government in Madras High Court submitted on Friday, the state government informed that 32.13 lakh people in rural areas and 23.54 lakh in urban local bodies had been identified as poor and very poor families

State Advocate General Vijay Narayan before the Madras High Court also submitted a copy of the report on the process through which the rural poor families were identified.

As per the report submitted by the state government through Advocate General Vijay Narayan stated, ‘The Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP) process was conducted in 31 districts covering all the 385 blocks in phases between 2006-07 and 2014-15.

Hence, the government proposed to utilise the household wise data obtained through the PIP in rural areas and the information collected based on the designed parameters in urban areas from time to time, the A-G submitted before the Madras High Court.

After this, The Madras High Court said in its Order, “Ongoing through the report, we are of the view that there is no irregularity or arbitrariness in the special financial help scheme announced by the government.”

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By talharashid

Part-time Traveler| Full-time Political Enthusiast | Foodie | Strong Believer of Freedom of Speech and Expressions!

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