Subsidised grains to 75% population from April 1

Subsidised grains to 75% population from April 1
OUR DELHI BUREAU
NEW DELHI, OCT 23
In a single stroke, the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council on Saturday flung aside the “below poverty line” (BPL) criteria for food to poor, directing the government to subsidise supplies to 75 per cent of India’s population, categorising the poorest as “priority” category and a bit better off as “general”.
The “priority” category household will get 35 kilo of foodgrains a month, comprising wheat at Rs 2 a kilo, rice at Rs 3 a kilo and millets at Rs 1 a kilo, while those in “general” category will have 20 kilos a month at a price not exceeding 50 per cent of the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The government already provides cheap grains to the BPL families but the number of beneficiaries of the subsidised grains will shoot up more than four times from some 18 crores to nearly 80 crores in the new regime and thus shield a substantial voter base from surging inflation in a country where 40 per cent of the 120 crore population lives below the UN-estimated poverty line.
The new criteria will steer the government clear of getting bogged down with three different official BPL estimates and enable it to push ahead without entering into any wrangle with the States on the exact count of the poor. The NAC wants a complete overhaul of the Public Distribution System (PDS) for implementing the new regime.
“We are obviating the need to look at the BPL data. Starting from the top, we have decided to knock off 15 per cent of the most affluent sections from the rural areas and 60 per cent from the urban areas and included the rest under the food security net,” Dr Narendra Jadhav, a member of the NAC told a press conference here. He is also a Planning Commission member and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Pune.
Because of Sonia Gandhi, the NAC recommendation is as good as a directive to the Government to quickly draft a National Food Security Bill and get it passed by Parliament in the winter session next month to meet the deadline it has set for supplies under the new system through PDS start kicking from April 1.
The NAC also made it clear that the subsidy levels should remain unchanged till 2017. All targeted households are to be covered by 2014 that will cost the government a whopping Rs 38,000 crore or more a year in terms of subsidy. The recommendation will ruin the government’s efforts to bring down the budget deficits causing inflation and price rise, but yet it was felt politically necessary lest the stubbornly high food prices erode the political support of the Congress-led UPA.
“Legal entitlements to subsidised foodgrains should be extended to at least 75 per cent of the country’s population – 90 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas,” the NAC said in a statement. It said nearly 80 crore people will get benefit through a reformed PDS network.
Other important components of the food security bill recommended by the NAC include legal entitlements for child and maternal nutrition, as well as for community kitchens and programmes for feeding the destitute and vulnerable groups.
The NAC has also recommended measures to revitalise agriculture and diversify the commodities available under PDS as also ensure universal access to safe water and proper sanitation. It has also suggested universalising primary healthcare, extending nutrition and health support to adolescent girls, strengthening the school health programme, the programme for Vitamin A, iodine and iron supplementation and the national programme for crèches.