India News | SC Junks Plea for Comprehensive Study on Adverse Impact of Freebies

New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea to appoint an expert committee to conduct a comprehensive study on the adverse impact of direct cash benefit, freebies and other state-sponsored schemes.

"We are not inclined to entertain this petition. The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed," a bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran said.

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The plea sought a direction to the Centre and others to announce and implement scheme in the nature of freebies only after conducting a proper economic or financial assessment by experts in the filed and approval from the Reserve Bank of India, the NITI Aayog and state planning authorities.

It also sought a direction to the authorities to limit the allocation for direct cash transfer or freebies schemes to a fiscally sustainable band capped at one per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product or one per cent of the state's own tax collections or revenue expenditure, whichever was lower.

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The plea said it must be ensured such schemes were implemented responsibly without compromising the long term fiscal stability or diverting resources from essential public services like healthcare, education and infrastructure.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)