Panel suggests rollback of PDS price hike

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. To add to the woes of the Government, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution has recommended that the recent increase in the price of PDS foodgrains for below the poverty line (BPL) population be rolled back.

At a press conference, the Committee Chairman, Mr. D.P. Yadav, said the report was adopted unanimously by panel members from all parties, including those from the BJP, who attended the meeting held here on April 11.

In the fifth report tabled in Parliament today, the Committee said the hike was not justified as the purchasing power of the poor had not increased and the economic disparity between the rich and the poor ``could not be narrowed even after 51 years of independence''.

The purpose of increasing rations from 10 kg to 20 kg for BPL people had been defeated due to the exorbitant hike in the price of foodgrains meant for the poor, which was beyond their purchasing power. It was the foremost duty of a democratic welfare state to provide food security to all and to specifically ensure that the poorest of the poor did not starve.

The Committee noted that the actual food subsidy for 1996-97 was Rs. 5,166 crore, for 1997-98 Rs. 7,500 crore and for 1999-2000 Rs. 8,700 crore. The Government had proposed a subsidy of Rs. 8,210 crore in the budget estimate for 2000-2001 and had claimed that food subsidy had increased, whereas on the contrary it had actually been reduced.

The panel recommended that while curtailing the food subsidy some economical, administrative and operational measures should be adopted by reducing administrative costs, operational costs, transit losses, shortages, carrying costs and pilferage in the operation of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) instead of burdening the BPL population. ``Otherwise, the dream to cater to the nutritious needs of the poor through the Targeted PDS at cheaper rates will not come true.''

Commenting on the identification of the beneficiaries of the TPDS, which was launched in 1997 when Mr. Yadav himself was the Food Minister, the panel noted that benefits of the TPDS had not percolated to the right persons due to mass scale irregularities in the identification of families below the poverty line. It suggested that the landless, farm labour, marginal farmers, rural artisans, craftspersons, potters, weavers, blacksmiths and carpenters in rural areas and slum dwellers and persons earning their livelihood on a daily wage basis such as porters, coolies, rickshaw and handcart pullers and vendors in urban areas should be included.

The panel suggested that gram panchayats and sabhas be involved in the initial identification of eligible families and final identification could be done after verification of doubtful cases. Officials involved in the task of identification families should be made accountable.

Observing that old stock of foodgrains and sugar were lying in FCI godowns, the Committee recommended that concrete steps be taken to liquidate stocks. Accumulated old stocks should be disposed off on the age-old norm of ``first-in-first-out''.

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