People's Democracy

Universal PDS Must for Food Security

 

Dusmanta Das

 

THAT universalisation of the public distribution system (PDS) is the prerequisite for providing food security to the people of India, is the opinion Sitaram Yechury, member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, has put forward while on a visit to Orissa.

 

Addressing a seminar organised by the CPI(M)’s Orissa state committee at Bhubaneswar on October 29 on the subject “Food Security ---A Fundamental Right of the People,” Yechury criticised the faulty recommendations of National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Mrs Sonia Gandhi. The NAC has advised a method for providing food security by which only 40 per cent of the population will get a monthly quota of 35 kg of food grains (millet at the rate of Rs l per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg and rice at Rs 3 per kg) in the name of ‘priority households’ while another 35 per cent will get the grains at half the minimum support price (MSP) in the name of ‘general households.’ However, since the priority household people will be chosen from the below-poverty-line (BPL) and Antodaya categories, a good number of beneficiaries of the present day BPL and Antodaya schemes will be out of its purview. There are serious deficiencies in the method being used to determine the poverty line criteria in our country. Here, only calorie intake is considered for the purpose; other criteria like provision of shelter, clothing, education etc are not taken into account. It is thus that the number of people below the poverty line is artificially reduced.

 

On the other hand, Yechury recalled, the report of Dr Arjun Sengupta committee says that 77 per cent of our population is able to spend less than Rs 20 a day. At the same time, the neo-liberal economic policy is purported to help the rich. The number of dollar billionaires in our country increased from 26 to 52 in only two years and now stands at 63. The central government and the media also boast that three Indians occupy the number 3, 4 and 5 position among the ten richest people of the world. But during the same period more than 14 crores of people have gone down below the poverty line level. The tragedy is that lakhs of tonnes of food grains get perished under the open sky while the poor are committing suicide in droves. 

 

Reacting to the plea of the government of India for shortage of funds, Yechury said the UPA-2 government has forgone indirect taxes to the tune of Rs 9, 33, 000 crore and given Rs 2,20,000 crore as direct tax concessions to the rich in the last two years. Then, why cannot it provide another Rs 90,000 crore to provide 35 kg of rice or wheat at Rs 3 or Rs 2 per kg respectively to all the families in the country?

 

Making a scathing remark against the developed capitalist countries, the CPI(M) leader said the Doha round of the WTO talks is being utilised to create pressure on the developing countries to open their markets for the former. Explaining the US president, Barak Obama’s visit to India, he said one of the purposes of his visit is to create pressure on India to open its market for the US agro-products, besides opening up other sectors. The UPA has a majority in the parliament and can pass any law including the so-called food security bill which would actually deprive a majority of people of the right to food. But the people have the ultimate power and if the people are mobilised and big struggles lunched against the anti-people measures of the government of India, then that will be a fitting reply to Barak Obama and the UPA government.

 

Senior party leader Sivaji Patnaik presided over the seminar. Earlier, CPI(M) state committee secretary Janardan Pati declared that the party would mobilise people all over the state to demand universalisation of the PDS which would be the guaranteeing factor for providing food security to all.