Chennai: The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition seeking a stay order on the government’s Rs 2,000 special finance assistance scheme. The order by delivered by Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad who were hearing case filed by Karunanidhi from Vilupuram.
The petitioner said he is not against the government’s intention of giving Rs 2,000, but it is the way in which the scheme is being carried out.
“It was said the amount will be given to people below poverty line, but now forms are being given to know get the details of poor people. All this is being done for political leverage. There is discrepancies even in the Government Order issued for this scheme,” the petition mentioned.
Responding to this government’s advocate general Vijay Narayan said the GO submitted by the petitioner is fake one and asked the Court to issue summon to know where Karunanidhi got it from.
After hearing the arguments from both the sides, the Judges asked the government to submit a report on how to consider poor people and those below poverty line. This report was submitted by the government.
After going through the documents, the judges observed that proper procedures were followed in identifying 60 lakh families living below poverty line.
Palaniswami inaugurated the Rs 2,000 special finance assistance scheme for people below poverty line at the Secretariat 4 March. The scheme was announced by him during the budget session of the Tamilnadu Assembly this year.
He said the money was being given on the grounds that poor people in several districts have been affected by Cyclone Gaja and drought-like situation following the failure of monsoon. The measure would cost the State exchequer Rs 1,200 crore and the money would be allocated in the supplementary estimates for the year 2018-19. In all, 35 lakh BPL families in rural areas and 25 lakh BPL families in urban areas will benefit from this assistance.