(Mukesh Seth)
(Mumbai)
The ₹59,000 annual income limit set by the Government of Maharashtra to obtain free ration under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) is extremely outdated and insensitive. Surendra kumar Bajpai, President of the Mumbai Janata Dal (Secular) party, has written a letter to the Minister of Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Protection, strongly demanding that this condition be changed and the annual income qualification for free ration be raised to ₹2,50,000 (Two Lakh Fifty Thousand Rupees). He has said that if the government does not take this decision within 30 days, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) will be filed in the Mumbai High Court .
The Poor of Maharashtra Left Helpless Compared to Other States
The letter notes that although Maharashtra is a leading economic state in the country, an extremely restrictive condition is applied to its urban poor. In contrast, the situation in other states is as follows:
Delhi: The annual income limit is ₹2,50,000 .
Uttar Pradesh: The annual income limit is ₹2,00,000 .
Gujarat: The limit for urban areas is ₹1,50,000 .
Compared to this, by keeping the limit at a mere ₹59,000 in Maharashtra, crores of needy families are being deliberately deprived of their right to food security .
Government’s Contradiction with the Minimum Wages Act
According to government rules, the minimum wage for an unskilled worker in Mumbai and other municipal corporation areas (Zone-1) is approximately ₹13,921 per month. This means that the annual income of a family earning minimum wages under the law amounts to 1.5 to 1.75 lakh rupees. If there is a second earning member in the family, this income reaches up to ₹2.5 lakhs. This implies that the Civil Supplies Department considers a worker earning minimum wages under the government’s own law as “rich” for a ration card. This is a legal and moral contradiction against Governments own minimum wages criteria.
Central Funding, Then Why the State Government’s Apathy?
The Central Government bears the entire financial burden of free food grains under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana’ (PMGKAY) and the Food Security Act. This does not place any burden on the state government’s treasury. Despite this, simply because the criteria have not been changed, auto-rickshaw drivers, domestic workers, security guards, and construction laborers in Mumbai remain deprived of rations.
Given the inflation and house rents in urban areas, it is necessary to relax this condition immediately. Mumbai Janata Dal (Secular) has warned that if the new limit of ₹2.5 lakhs is not implemented a Public Interest Litigation will be filed under a ‘Writ of Mandamus’ in the Honorable High Court to protect the citizens’ right to life and food security under Article 21 of the Constitution .
 Aggressive Against Restrictive ₹59,000 Annual Income Qualifying Condition for free Ration; Warns of Filing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in High Court){kind=link}