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Bureaucrats pip poor to poverty line! -Kapil Dave

-The Times of India

Gandhinagar: The delayed implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by the Gujarat government from April 1 has thrown up a rather unappetizing truth.

More than 1.58 lakh people with permanent government jobs, four wheelers, five or more acres of land, monthly income of Rs 10,000 and paying income-tax -- were feeding off wheat and rice at Rs 2 per kg and highly subsidized sugar and kerosene meant for the impoverished.

A physical and computerized scrutiny carried out by civil supplies and consumer affairs department of 26-odd lakh below poverty line (BPL) card holders in rural Gujarat red-flagged names of 1,58,333 'non-deserving' persons as per the exclusion criteria of NFSA implemented as 'Ma Annapurna' scheme.

Most shocking among the 'non-deserving' card-holders were 23,550 permanent government employees. In Gujarat, families with a monthly income of Rs 324 and below in rural areas and Rs 501 and less in urban areas are termed as living below poverty line.

"The government will save Rs 116 crore annually by excluding these 1.58 lakh BPL card holders. If they are prohibited from taking sugar and kerosene through PDS, the government will save another Rs 20 crore and Rs 38 crore in subsidy," said a senior civil supplies official.

"Government employees feeding off grains meant for poor is criminal.In stark contrast, a survey of 36 villages in Panchmahals and Dahod district revealed 1,800 poorest of poor whose names were missing in the BPL and even Antodaya lists," said food rights activist and member of Ann Suraksha Adhikar Abhiyan Neeta Hardikar. Manoj Das, principal secretary, civil supplies and consumer affairs department, confirmed exclusion of 1.58 lakh card holders.

He, however, declined to comment if government will bar them from taking benefit under PDS or cancel their BPL cards. "I cannot comment on it as it is the government's policy decision."

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