Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cash transfers can plug PDS leakages: study -Puja Mehra

Cash transfers can plug PDS leakages: study -Puja Mehra

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Feb 3, 2015   modified Modified on Feb 3, 2015
-The Hindu

A new study has estimated that 46.7 per cent or 25.9 million metric tonnes (MMTs) of the grains (rice and wheat), released through the PDS, did not reach the intended beneficiaries in 2011-12.

In the study, based on the latest NSSO data, by Chair Professor for Agriculture at ICRIER and former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP), Ashok Gulati and Shweta Saini, Chhattisgarh was the best performing State with 0 per cent diversion. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were among the better performers with 11.1 per cent and 12.2 per cent leakages respectively.

The worst-performing State was Manipur where 97.8 per cent of the grains failed to reach beneficiaries, followed by Daman and Diu where leakages were 95.8 per cent. In Delhi, 82.6 per cent of the grains were diverted.

During the period under study, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister in Gujarat, the pilferage was 72.2 per cent. Poor States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal delivered greater proportion of off-taken grains to the poor than Gujarat.

The paper makes a case for shifting the support to the poor from the highly subsidised price policy to Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) of cash transfers through the Jan Dhan Yojana dovetailed with Aadhaar. The researchers estimate that this could result in savings of up to Rs.33,087 crore annually in food subsidy bills.

This is the best global practice which can plug leakages, reach the vulnerable segments of population, not interfere with markets of food, result in savings to the Centre, while still giving a better deal to consumers, the paper says.

The paper questions the need for the PDS not only on account of its inefficiency owing to high leakages but also on equity grounds. Five States - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal - which are home to close to 60 per cent of India's poor, accounted for almost 50 per cent of the total grain leakage in the country.

Examining whether the PDS is tuned to help abolish poverty, the paper says that the major beneficiaries of the PDS are people from States that have a smaller number of poor. "In a way, it helps the better offs more than the real poor of the country," the paper says.

The paper, however, cautioned that the better-than-normal efficiency of some States, reflected in the findings, could be the result of state-run, food-based welfare schemes supplementing the central PDS. Chhattisgarh covers 90 per cent of its population, while Tamil Nadu covers close to 100 per cent of its population and both have greater per card entitlement relative to the centre-run scheme, it says.

A CACP paper had estimated that leakage for the year 2009-10 was 40.4 per cent. Just before the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) was wound up by the new government in 2014, it had reported in a preliminary finding that approximately 40 per cent of the food grain allocated under the PDS did not reach the intended beneficiaries.

The PDS operates through a network of roughly 5.00,000 fair price shops (FPS) across the country and is likely the largest public network of its type in the world, currently distributing roughly 50-55 MMT of grains annually.

The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 also relies on this vehicle to deliver food security to 67 per cent of population (75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban) with an estimated distribution of about 61.4 MMT of grains.


The Hindu, 1 February, 2015, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/cash-transfers-can-plug-pds-leakages-study/article6843342.ece


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close