MADURAI
Coming across a number of cases pertaining to illegal transportation of public distribution system (PDS) rice to the neighbouring States, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday suggested the State government constitute a committee to tackle the menace.
Justice B. Pugalendhi said the State government could constitute a committee comprising officials of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, ADGP Civil Supplies CID, Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The committee should be constituted in order to prevent illegal transportation of PDS rice and check the quality of the rice, the court said during the course of the hearing of a batch of cases pertaining to illegal transportation of PDS rice.
Earlier, the court had sought a response from the State government on the functioning of the public distribution system after it was informed that the rice distributed through PDS was not consumable by humans.
Senior counsel Kathirvelu, representing a petitioner accused of illegally transporting PDS rice, told the court that ration cardholders got the rice from the ration shops and sold them.
The court said the quality of the rice should be checked. The court passed the common direction on a batch of connected matters. Taking into account the circumstances in the cases, the court granted bail and anticipatory bail to the accused.
