People's Democracy

THE spectacle of accumulated foodgrains rotting in the FCI godowns while people go hungry in the drought-affected parts of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, highlights the fiasco of the foodgrains policy of the Vajpayee government. In the worst scandal of the present times, 40 million tonnes of foodgrains are lying unutilised while those who are hungry and malnourished cannot get even a morsel from these huge stocks. What prevents them from getting this grain is the market-dictated policy imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. The Vajpayee government cannot disobey the order Cut The Food Subsidy.

The latest report on the public distribution system by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has exposed the shocking state of affairs. We have always maintained that the Targetted Public Distribution System (TPDS) is meant not to streamline the public distribution system but to dismantle it. According to the CAG Report, out of the 31 states and union territories in the country, surveys in 18 for identification of families below the poverty line (BPL) have not been completed. Among the 13 states which has "identified" the BPL population, several have failed to supply ration cards to the BPL families. The definition of the people below the poverty line have also been so devised in most states as to eliminate large sections of the poor. According to the CAG report, there is a wide discrepancy between the official estimate and the estimate of the Planning Commission. While the official BPL estimate was eight per cent, the Planning Commission’s estimate was 24 per cent in Gujarat; in Bihar, 29 per cent as against 55 per cent; in Karnataka, 17 per cent as against 33 per cent; in Rajasthan, 9 per cent as against 27 per cent; and in Maharashtra, 19 per cent as against 37 per cent.

This is how targetting is used to eliminate people out of the public distribution system. As for the people in the so-called above poverty line category, they are not considered poor. This of course is a fallacy, the result of so defusing of poverty line as to fix it in many states so that it pushes a large number of the poor people above the poverty line.

The experience of states where the public distribution system works well, as in Kerala, shows that it is impossible to run an effective system with such targetting. The best system would be a universal one. But the Vajpayee government, just as its predecessors, having embraced the World Bank philosophy, cannot face the reality and change its policies. The recent announcement by the Prime Minister of providing five kilos extra to the poorest one crore families will mean only an extra five lakh tonnes being disposed of from the four crore total stocks. Instead of announcing a comprehensive `Food For Work’ programme which can reach the foodgrains to the really poor, generate employment and help build the rural infrastructure, the Vajpayee government is resorting to cosmetic gestures like the "Antyodaya" scheme.

The urgent necessity is for the centre to allocate free foodgrains to the drought-affected states. The Rajasthan chief minister has correctly observed that release of foodgrains under the `Food For Work’ programme would benefit over 10 crore people in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. But for a callous and uncaring government, such eminently reasonable demands cannot be even considered, given its anxiety to please the financial bosses in Washington.