A poll gimmick

If the United Progressive Alliance government thinks that the much tom-tommed Food Security Bill (FSB) is a magic bullet that will help it garner a significant number of votes in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, it will be sadly mistaken.

Though the idea cannot be faulted in a country with millions of hungry people having little means of buying sufficient food, the government, despite working on the bill for over four years, has failed to come up with a fool-proof mechanism that will ensure proper implementation of this gigantic scheme. FSB envisages an estimated government spending of Rs 1.25 lakh crore annually on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse cereals to 67 per cent of the population. The key proposal is to supply 5 kg of grains per month to three-quarters of the rural and upto half the urban population at subsidised prices. But the logistics of cultivation, procurement, pricing, storage, transportation and distribution have hardly received the attention that they deserve, giving room for cynicism that this is an election gimmick by a scam-tainted government to somehow win back the electorate with an unattainable dream.

The government has done well supplying 35 kg of foodgrain per family per month to 2.43 crore BPL families under Antyodaya Anna Yojana, though, even here, the oversight mechanisms to cross-check credentials of beneficiaries are mostly lacking. This, and other proposals involving allocation of sufficient foodgrain on a regulator basis under PDS, call for a thorough revamp of regional distribution channels. Roughly 40 per cent of rice and wheat earmarked for the poor is siphoned off due to corruption and incompetence at local transport levels, not to mention 20 per cent of the huge foodgrain stock with Food Corporation of India falling prey to sub-standard storage environments and rain water seepage.

The government has intended FSB’s benefits to go beyond mere food provisioning. Such good intentions will go a long way only when targets are accurately identified for maximum welfare impact. The National Sample Survey Office says that under the existing PDS, a significant proportion of BPL households do not have access to subsidised rice and wheat. That being the case, instead of thoroughly discussing the new proposal among its partners and with the Opposition, the government further dented its credibility by issuing an Ordinance on the FSB when the Parliament session was not even a month away. It clearly compounds its dishonesty.