#dnaEdit: PDS short shrifted

The Chhattisgarh Public Distribution System (PDS) rice scam, involving several high-level state government functionaries, exemplifies how official corruption rather than structural distortion plagues the system. In recent times, government panels have been quick to blame last-mile leakages at the fair-price shop level for diversion of PDS foodgrains. But the Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau’s raid at the State Civil Supplies Corporation office in February, during which Rs3.64 crore in unaccounted cash was allegedly recovered, tells another story. When senior officials are intent upon weakening the very system that they have been tasked to implement and monitor, it reveals a crisis of governance rather than the failure of any particular PDS mechanism. Among those under the scanner of suspicion, based on entries in a balance sheet, are the former food secretary and the civil supplies corporation managing director. The modus operandi was to allegedly collect commissions from millers who mixed low-quality rice in the rice sold to the government. The fact that PDS beneficiaries across states complain of poor quality rice raises apprehensions that similar scams are operating throughout the country.

Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Raman Singh, whose family has also been dragged into the scandal, has termed the scam as an attempt by “unscrupulous elements” looking for “ingenious ways” to undermine a “great success story”. Last year, it was revealed that nearly 14 lakh fake ration cards were issued by Chhattisgarh. In 2013, during the run-up to the assembly elections, the state saw a suspicious 100 per cent increase in BPL households. All this has been happening in a “model state”, acclaimed for PDS decentralisation and comparatively lesser PDS leakage. It is quite ironic that corrupt practices have run riot in the guise of universalisation of the PDS, a longstanding demand of Left-leaning activists. These developments have come at a time when the pan-India roll-out of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, has been further delayed over the failure of most states to identify the beneficiaries and publish their details online. Rather than exhibiting the institutional will to strengthen the PDS, the states appear to be reluctant partners in the Centre’s efforts to usher in end-to-end computerisation and more transparency.

Recently, the Centre rejected the Shanta Kumar panel’s recommendations to curb the NFSA coverage to just 40 per of the population as against the 67 per cent proposed by the Act. However, the government has accepted the panel’s proposal on cash transfers in cities with populations above one million. Surveys indicate that only respondents in poorly performing states like Uttar Pradesh were amenable to cash transfers. Respondents elsewhere worried about the rise in local food prices in the absence of PDS shops and poor banking access. The Centre must also be worried about cash transfers being diverted to meet non-nutritional needs. A clear Centre-state dichotomy is apparent with regard to the PDS. The states see it as a vote-catching welfare measure, with many like Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha exceeding the NFSA in population coverage. However, the Centre has taken a grim view of the leakages and the fiscal imprudence in subsidised distribution of foodgrains to above poverty-line (APL) categories. As expected, these states, cutting across party lines, have voiced their opposition to cash transfers. But it is also time to show more commitment to the PDS if such objections are to gain credibility. Like any other government scheme, the PDS can only be as immune to the neta-babu nexus as the establishment wants it to be. Without institutionalising an independent oversight mechanism, no PDS or cash transfer scheme can be corruption-free.