Sharad Pawar says food grain distribution is the states’ responsibility.
The proposed food security bill is already giving state governments the jitters as it may open the floodgates to legal action against them if they falter in food grain distribution, which is essentially their responsibility. So much so that three chief ministers — Sheila Dikshit of Delhi, Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar — have written to the agriculture ministry that food grain distribution should be replaced with cash distribution in the bill.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said while the Centre was in charge of allocations to states, it was the states which had to implement the distribution. “This is a legally enforceable right and if a [state] government is not able to deliver, somebody will be liable for legal action. The Centre’s job is to allocate, the public distribution system [PDS] comes under state governments,” he said.
PDS is a matter of concern in many states and since this could well turn out to be the main channel of distributing grains, the door is wide open to legal battles.
The agriculture minister was quick to point out that preliminary discussions had not yet begun over the proposed bill, but wary chief ministers had already sent in their suggestions. “The first meeting of the group of ministers is tomorrow (Thursday),” he said.
Asked whether the differing BPL figures were a stumbling block to finalising the number of beneficiaries, Pawar said there were certain problems with the state governments. “If we agree to all the assessments sent by the state governments of the number of BPL families, it will come to a figure marginally more than the total population of India,” he said with a laugh.
“Earlier, the planning commission’s and the state governments’ figures had been reconciled and allocations for Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) finalised accordingly in 1994-95. The problem arose during the NDA regime when the difference between the price of AAY grains and that of grains available in the open market became huge.
“The gap has only widened since. For example, in 2002, the price paid by the government for wheat in the market was Rs350 per quintal and now it is Rs1,080 per quintal. There was a rush to increase the number of beneficiaries,” Pawar said.
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