For how long freebies can be given, not jobs? SC

AMN / WEB DESK

Stressing the need for creating job opportunities the Supreme Court on Monday asked government “For how long freebies can be given?”

The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the things being distributed for free by the government and has questioned how long things will continue to be given for free like this. The Supreme Court said that the government should focus on providing employment opportunities.

A bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Manmohan said. In fact, the bench was surprised when the Center told the court that 81 crore people are being given free or subsidized ration under the National Food Security Act 2013.

The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Center, “This means that only taxpayers are deprived of it.” In fact, the Supreme Court heard the problems of migrant laborers during the Corona epidemic by taking suo motu cognizance.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, demanded that instructions should be given to provide free ration to all migrant workers registered on the e-shram portal.

Bhushan said that directions have been issued by the court from time to time to all the states and union territories to issue ration cards to migrant workers so that they can avail the free ration provided by the Centre.

On this, the bench said, ‘For how long can it be given for free? Why don’t we work for employment opportunities, employment and capacity building for these migrant workers?’ Prashant Bhushan said that if the census had been done in 2021, the number of migrant workers would have increased, but the Center is currently dependent on the data of the 2011 census. On this, the bench said, ‘We should not create a division between the Center and the states, otherwise it will be very difficult.’

During the hearing, there was some heated exchange between Mehta and Bhushan as the Solicitor General said that the court should not rely on data and figures given by ‘an armchair NGO which was busy drafting and filing petitions in the apex court instead of providing relief to people’. To this, Bhushan said that Mehta was angry with him because he had released some emails related to him, which gave a wrong impression.

Mehta hit back, saying, ‘I never thought he (Bhushan) would stoop so low, but now that he has raised the issue of emails, he needs to respond. Those emails were considered by the court. When someone tries to harm the government or the country, it has to object to such petitions.’ Justice Surya Kant tried to pacify both Mehta and Bhushan and said that the matter of migrant workers is listed for detailed hearing on January 8.