HC modifies order on Pongal gifts

Days after restraining the Tamil Nadu government from distributing Rs 1,000 as a gift for Pongal to non-BPL ration card holders, the Madras High Court Friday modified its order allowing the state to extend it to 'sugar card' holders, a group which does not belong to the BPL category.

"Since a responsible officer has submitted through a sworn affidavit that those with non-priority household only for sugar (NPHH-S) cards also fall under the below poverty line category, we are permitting the government to distribute the cash gift to balance 5,98,772 people falling under this category," a division bench said.

The bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam passed the order while allowing a modification application moved by the Tamil Nadu government.

When the plea came up, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that most of the families in NPHH-S category also belonged to economically weaker background.

The numbers of such families cannot be arrived at this juncture as the ...