Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gently told the Supreme Court, which recently directed the government to distribute foodgrains free to the poor, not to get into the "realm of policy formulation".

How can foodgrains be distributed free to an estimated 37 per cent of the population which lives below the poverty line, Singh asserted during an interaction with editors at his residence here.

It was not not possible to give free foodgrains to all the poor, he said while answering a question on the order of the the apex court which had directed Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to distribute foodgrains to the poor instead of allowing them to rot.