Uttarakhand High Court
WPPIL/49/2020 on 21 April, 2020
Bench: Sudhanshu Dhulia, Ravindra Maithani
WPPIL No. 49 of 2020 WPPIL No. 55 of 2020 Hon'ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.
Hon'ble Ravindra Maithani, J.
Heard Mr. Murli Manohar Srivastava, petitioner in person in WPPIL No. 49 of 2020, Mr. Sandeep Tiwari, Advocate for the petitioner in WPPIL No. 55 of 2020, learned Advocate General for the State Mr. S.N. Babulkar along with learned Chief Standing Counsel Mr. Paresh Tripathi, assisted by Mr. Anil Bisht, Standing Counsel for the State, Mr. Rakesh Thapliyal, learned Assistant Solicitor General of India assisted by Mr. Sanjay Bhatt, Advocate.
In these two petitions, what has primarily been raised before this Court is the difficulty being faced by the farmers, particularly farm labourers, small and marginalized farmers in these difficult times when the State is battling with COVID 19 pandemic.
Most of the concerns raised by the petitioners have already been met by the State authorities, which is contained particularly in the Government Order dated 16.04.2020 passed by the State of Uttarakhand. One pressing problem, however, remains, which concerns small and marginalized farmers regarding payment of their harvest. This concerns the payment of the price. Normally it will take more than a month for them to get the price of the crop they have harvested.
Considering these difficulty and also being conscious of the logistical and other problems of the State, we direct that the State must consider promptly, on urgent basis of giving from its own resources 50% of the minimum support price of the wheat procured from the farmers, who have given wheat upto 100 quintals, in the purchasing centre, within three days from the date of procurement. This shall atleast take care of urgent need of these farmers.
All the same, since we are also conscious of the fact that most of the amount will ultimately come from the Food Corporation of India, and we are not at the moment aware of the logistics and funds available with the State Government, we only direct the State Government to consider it, but consider it on urgent basis for release of this amount, as directed as above. We would wait for the reply of the State, before going further with the matter.
We also direct the counsel for the Food Corporation of India and Mr. Rakesh Thapliyal, learned Assistant Solicitor General of India to get instructions in this matter.
List these matters on 24.04.2020 at 11:00 a.m. (Ravindra Maithani, J.) (Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.) 21.04.2020 Avneet/