Government can’t guarantee equal access to food for all: CJI

The government can’t be expected to provide food, education and healthcare to all but relief would be offered to the deprived sections, Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia has said while advocating the adoption of minimum core approach. Saying that the financial meltdown has ushered in a paradigm shift from equality in terms of equal access to minimum core approach, the CJI said, “Equal access to food cannot be given. You cannot have access to all in a population of one billion but those who are below the poverty line can have it.”

Speaking at the 17th Commonwealth Law Conference in Hyderabad, Kapadia said that there is no way to ensure that everyone has access to everything though it would be an immediate need to address the issues related to people below the poverty line. Being held after about 40 years, the conference has brought about 800 delegates and includes chief justices and jurists from 54 countries. Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday inaugurated the biennial five-day conference.

Blaming the stagnation in the agriculture sector for the scarcity of food, Kapadia said that the industrial and services sectors have recorded a 12 per cent growth while the growth of agriculture has remained at about 4%. Addressing it straight to the prime minister sitting on the dais, Kapadia said, the government should consider setting up of a system of Indian Regulatory Service on the lines of IAS or IPS.