THE Vajpayee government has, finally, decided to reduce the central issue price for wheat and rice for families above the poverty line (APL) by Rs. 2.20 and Rs. 3.00 per kg respectively. While this is welcome, the government's refusal to reduce the prices for families below the poverty line (BPL) is outright inhuman.

With large parts of the country experiencing severe drought and reports of starvation deaths increasing, what is needed is to ensure that foodgrains reach those who need them the most. Instead of doing this, the Vajpayee government appears concerned only with reducing the costs of maintaining a rising mountain of food stocks. Since the people below the poverty line, in any case, do not have adequate purchasing power, reduction of prices for them would not reduce the food stocks substantially. So seems to be the callous logic of this government. On the other hand, reduction of prices for the APL may result in a reduction in stocks thus reducing the costs of holding and maintaining foodgrains in the godowns.

As of 1^st June 2001, according to government statistics, the country had a stock of 604.08 lakh tonnes of foodgrains as against the buffer norm of 158 lakh tonnes. This is four times more than what is needed by the country. Through these columns, all along, we had advocated that the government should immediately slash the prices at which this grain should be sold and simultaneously introduce a countrywide `food for work' programme. While the former would have ensured that starvation leading to deaths would be minimised, the latter would have provided the much needed employment, particularly to the rural youth who could be mobilised to build rural infrastructure, in return for foodgrains in kind. This would have been the best way to utilise this growing food stock mountain. The Vajpayee government preferred not to undertake such a strategy and, instead, sought to export these foodgrains at prices much below than levels at which it sells to the Indian people! Such a strategy was guided more by crass avarice to earn foreign exchange at the expense and misery of the Indian people.

However, such efforts at exporting the foodgrains appear to have failed with foreign countries returning the grain as being inferior. Further, over 4/5ths of the entire food subsidy is being spent on maintaining these stocks. Thus, if government has to reduce its cost of maintaining these huge food stocks, then it has to devise methods for reducing this stockpile of foodgrains. However, the method it choses is not one that will bring relief to the most needy. Neither will it meet the objective of reducing these stocks since even after the price decrease, rice and wheat would not be much cheaper than the market price.

What is required is to immediately implement the `food for work' programme while drastically reducing further the prices of foodgrain. By not doing so, the Vajpayee government is clearly displaying an appalling human insensitivity. It appears that this government would rather have the food stocks rot than making them available for the people who need them the most. Such an inhuman government cannot be allowed to compound people's miseries any further.