The Supreme Court today asked the government to proceed cautiously in the gradual phase-out of the existing model of private fair price shops so that no gap is created in supply of food grains under public distribution system.
The apex court favoured the idea of doing away with private fair price shops to make food grain distribution in sync with the recommendations of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) till it becomes a law.
"We are hearing about the gradual phasing out of private fair price shop. However, there should not be crisis in supply of food grains. The substitute should not be worse than the existing one," a bench comprising justices T S Thakur and Fakkir M Kalifulla said.
The remarks were made by the bench during the perusal of an affidavit placed by Attorney General G E Vahanvati in which there were 10 suggestions by the Centre based on the recommendations of the Justice D P Wadhwa Committee which had given detailed report on the ills and remedial measures to be adopted for the public distribution system (PDS).
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for NGO People's Union of Civil Liberty (PUCL), submitted that the affidavit has not addressed the issue of Wadhwa Committee report which has called for keeping away politicians as members in the vigilance committee for the implementation of PDS.
Vahanvati agreed with him and said, "We have missed it and we will look into it."
The bench asked Gonsalves to go through the government's affidavit and come out with other suggestions which were required to be followed by the state governments and union territories in the implementation of the PDS.
