States like Gujarat not following Parliament Laws

The Supreme Court of India has scolded the Centre as state like Gujarat has so far not implemented the welfare legislation National Food Security Act. A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur asked "What is Parliament doing? Is Gujarat not a part of India? The Act says it extends to whole of India and Gujarat is not
implementing it."

It is not only Gujarat but nine other states and union territories have not implemented the social welfare legislation till now. But Modi’s state’s name has only been mentioned by the Centre. Justice Madan B Lokur Bench said the Counsel appearing for Gujarat "You want to break away from India. Law was passed by Parliament but the state is not implementing the law. How a state can say that it won’t implement the law. Tomorrow other states would say that it won’t follow IPC, CrPC."

Advocate Hemantika Wahai defended Gujarat and told the bench that they are in the final stage of implementation of the law and consultation was going on.  The Indian Supreme Court has asked the Centre to collect the information related to drought-hit states on the status of welfare schemes like MGNREGA, Food Security Act and the mid-day meal schemes to know whether affected are getting the minimum required employment and food or not.

The court was hearing the PIL filed by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan run by people like psephologists Yogendra Yadav for the implementation of the National Food Security Act which guarantees 5 kg of food grains per person per month. It also sought adequate compensation for crop loss and input subsidy for the next crops to the farmers affected by drought and subsidized cattle fodder for animals.

The PIL has been filed through Prashant Bhushan, also alleged the Centre and states that they have been neglecting the duties, causing enormous damage to the affected people due to their inaction.

-Sonali Chaudhary