KATHMANDU, Feb 2: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday directed the government to store enough food for the needy people keeping in mind the natural disasters hitting the country every year.

A division bench of justices Deepak Kumar Karki and Ananda Mohan Bhattarai issued the order to store enough food to save the needy citizens in such difficult situations. The bench also directed government authorities - the cabinet, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the Chief Secretary - to test the quality of such foods prior to distribution during difficult situations.

The bench was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Bhupendra Bahadur Thing of Phunglingkot VDC-2, Sindhupalchok district and Sitaram Maskey, of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-4, Kathmandu district, who claimed that various government and non government organizations have distributed sub-standard foods to the people after the earthquake three years ago, undermining the people's right to get quality food. Even though the verdict was pronounced last year but the apex court made public the full text of the judgment only on Friday.

The apex court also directed the government to protect agricultural land from being used for non-agricultural purpose. The bench also directed the government to enact suitable law in order to protect the skills of the people in the hilly, mountain and Ttarai regions for productive areas.

 
• govt
 
• told
 
• store
 
• sufficient
 
• food
 
• natural
 
• disasters