Don’t Reward Bad Behaviour: Madras HC Slams Tamil Nadu Government For Freebies, Says It Promotes Laziness

The Madras High Court on Thursday (22 November) criticised to the practice followed by the state government of providing freebies to people in the state irrespective of their economic status, reports The Hindu.

The remark of the High Court comes in the aftermath of ruling AIADMK government objecting to a scene in the movie ‘Sarkar’ starring Tamil actor Joseph Vijay, which showed burning of mixer-grinders distributed by the government. This led to editing out of the scene from the movie.

Court has criticised the populist policy of the government saying it had made people complacent to the point where all the menial jobs are expected to be performed by migrant workers coming from North India.

The observation was made by a Division Bench comprising of Justices N. Kirubakaran and Abdul Quddhose while dealing with a case related to providing rice free-of-cost to all ration card-holders under PDS without excluding the well-off.

“It is obligatory on the part of the government to provide bare necessities like rice and groceries only to the needy poor people. However, successive governments have extended the benefits to all for political benefits. Resultantly, the peoples’ mind itself got changed to expect everything free from the government,” said the judges.

The Bench led by Justice Kirubakaran had raised multiple questions related to PDS after the hearing of a Habeas Corpus petition filed against the preventive detention of a black marketeer last month.

The court has also demanded information regarding the action taken so far against government officials who were accused of smuggling of PDS rice.