The High Court on Friday closed a Public Interest Litigation which was seeking to adopt rational policy by the government for the procurement and distribution of nutritional supply in the Anganwadi centres in Jammu and Kashmir.
A division bench of Chief Justice and Justice Tashi Rabstanclosed the PIL after observing that the objective has been fulfilled. “Since theobject of the PIL has been achieved, it stands closed,” the bench said afterhearing the state’s counsel Feroz Ahmad and advocate Shafaqat Nazir on behalfof the petitioner.
An NGO, Jammu & Kashmir People’s Forum, through itsSecretary General M M Shuja had filed the PIL in the High Court seekingdirections that a policy should be adopted in line with the Supreme Courtdirections and Central Vigilance Commission guidelines.
As soon as the petition came up for hearing, deputy advocategeneral Feroz Ahmad told the court that the government has approved the’Decentralized Policy for Procurement of Supplementary Nutrition’ under theIntegrated Child Development Scheme.
The said scheme, he said, was adopted to bring transparency,accountability and greater involvement of community in the implementation ofthe nutrition scheme.
In its status report the government submitted that incompliance of the order issued by the court on 28 November last year, the StateAdministrative Council approved the new policy decision and vide governmentorder no 44- SW of 2019 on January 29 this year sanction was accorded fordecentralized policy for procurement of supplementary nutrition under ICDS.
The government informed the court that the new policy hasbeen framed as per the delegation of powers of Panchayati Raj Institutionsunder the amended Panchayati Raj Act. “Under the revised policy, supplementarynutrition shall be procured at Halqa Panchayat, Municipal Ward level.”
The court was informed that on the procurement models followedin different States particularly in Kerala, Uttarakhand and Odisha, procurementprocess under the scheme has been decentralized to the Anganwadi level exceptfor Rice and Wheat which will continue to be procured from Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI) through Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
The government submitted that the procurement at Anganwadilevel will be made under the supervision of respective Panchayati RajInstitutions as per the delegation of powers to Panchayati Raj Institutionsunder the amended Panchayati Raj Act.
“The procurement process will be ensured through variousCommittees including Procurement Committee-Rural, Procurement Committee-Urbanand a Recipe Committee, under the chairpersonship of Sarpanch, MunicipalCouncillor/Corporator and District Programme Officer respectively.”
The court was told that a District Level MonitoringCommittee under the District Development Commissioner (DDC) withrepresentatives from line departments will on monthly basis review the progressof implementation of nutrition programme under ICDS and submit report toMission Director, ICDS, for pointing out any deficiency and giving necessaryrecommendations for improvement or strengthening of the present policy.