States force Centre to expand food basket

Govt decides to extend PDS to 70 pc population

The UPA government at the Centre is set to extend its food delivery scheme up to 70 per cent of the population in the country, after struggling earlier to fine-tune its proposed National Food Security Bill (NFSB).

In a major shift from the previous stand, the Centre has decided now to leave it to the states to decide the quota of foodgrain distributed in urban and rural populations.

In the recent meeting held at the Prime Minister Office, attended by the officials of the ministries of Finance, Food and Consumer Affairs, it was decided to extend the ambit of the scheme to 70 per cent from the current 64 per cent of the population.

The government decided to make major modification in the scheme after the states raised objections to the Centre’s diktat about the percentage fixed to cover the rural and urban population, sources said.

The revised scheme which gives five kg of foodgrain per person in a family at the rate of Rs two for wheat, Rs three for rice and Re one for coarse grains, enhances the cost to the government to Rs 1.2 lakh crore per year, from the earlier Rs 90,000 crore. Government sources told Deccan Herald that the Finance ministry had cleared the new plan despite the cost increase.

As per the latest proposal under the NFSB scheme, the Centre will give foodgrain to each state average up to 67 to 70 per cent of the population. In the north-eastern states, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Union Territories, Andaman and Nicobar, foodgrains will be given to up to 90 per cent population. In 250 backward districts, up to 75 per cent of the population will be entitled for get subsidised foodgrains. Currently the Bill, which is before the Parliamentary standing committee on food, consumer affairs and public distribution, seeks to provide legal entitlement to almost 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population. Of this, around 46 per cent will be priority-category households in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban areas.

“As the Bill is before the standing committee, the Food and Consumer Affairs ministry will move a proposal to the panel to include its proposed modification,” sources said.

Admitting that the new proposal would increase the subsidy bill by around Rs 30,000 crore, the sources said that it was because the Food ministry agreed to the states’ demand to take the burden of transportation cost which would be around Rs 8,300 crore.
The requirement of the foodgrain will be around 62 million tonnes in a year.