Distribute free food to poor: Supreme Court

In an order of far reaching consequences, the Supreme Court Thursday asked the central government to distribute free foodgrains to families below the poverty line.

It also asked the state governments to tell whether they were distributing 35 kg of foodgrains to each of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families that was allocated to them by the central government.

The apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma gave the direction after the central government told the court that it was allocating 35 kg of foodgrains per BPL family to the states.