Govt says no starvation death in last 3 yrs

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said no state in the country has recorded any incidence of starvation deaths during the last three years.
   
"No incident of starvation death has been reported by any state/union territory including national capital so far," Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Akhilesh Prasad Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
   
He was replying to a question whether many cases of death due to starvation have been reported from various parts of the country and even in national capital during the last three years.
   
The minister said the government is allocating foodgrains at subsidised rates for people living under Below Poverty Line (BPL), Above Poverty Line (APL) and Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) for maintaining food security in the country.

In another reply, the minister said the government did not agree with the recommendation of the Abhijit Sen Committee that suggested reintroduction of the universal PDS with uniform central issue price.
   
"The introduction of universal PDS may result in the PDS losing its focus on meeting the needs of the poor," he said.
   
Singh said the TPDS was introduced in 1997 aiming at the underprivileged sections of the society, as the earlier Universal PDS did not adequately focus on the hungry and had urban bias.
   
Allocations of rice and wheat for the BPL and AAY families are made at 35 kg per family per month while they vary for APL households.