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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Chhattisgarh implements cheap food access-Sreelatha Menon

Chhattisgarh implements cheap food access-Sreelatha Menon

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published Published on Jun 17, 2013   modified Modified on Jun 17, 2013
-The Business Standard


Not so efficiently or transparently but there is progress and hope, besides showcasing likely problems with the Centre's own law

Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh): The UPA government at the Centre has been mulling hard on ways to enact its Food Security Bill, even as the Chhattisgarh government has completed six months of enacting a like law, one providing 35 kg of rice a month at Rs 2 a kg to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

What has changed in the state, governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, in these six months is the list of beneficiaries of the much-coveted cheap foodgrain. The law has relaxed the norms for inclusion in the BPL category.

In 2008, when the price was first reduced to Rs 2 a kg, the number of BPL cards increased from 1.8 million to 3.5 mn. In another three months, there would be a further jump of 800,000 households when the new cards would be distributed. The additions are mainly farmers and labourers, besides tribal communities -- there is almost no exclusion in tribal areas.

The state law has also started providing under the Public Distribution System (PDS), for the first time, two kg of pulses (yellow chickpea) at Rs 5 each on the card. Also, 800g of cooking oil a month has been promised soon.

Food Secretary Vikas Sheel admits that as of now, the main outcome of the law is the identification of the new beneficiaries. Camps were held from April to enroll as many of the eligible as possible. Eligibility is decided at the camp itself to ensure transparency, officials say.

Reality

Implementation on the ground, though, is not quite so. In village Baldidih in Pithora block of this district, several villagers who did not have BPL cards attended the camps; they might get lucky this time but no one has told them yet. Devki, 70, working at a site under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, says she has never ever got a ration card; if she got 35 kg a month, she says, it would end her troubles. She had attended the camp in the village but is clueless if her name has been approved for a new card.

In fact, most people who don't have a ration card are clueless about their fate. And, it is clear almost all in Baldidih want it. A landed and well-to-do farmer with 18 acres of unirrigated land in village Teka of this district serves refrigerated water and has a television set. He hopes to be included. As does tenant farmer and daily wager Santosh Sahu of Tum Gav, who earns Rs 10,000 a year and has a TV. "We get 35 kilos but we run out of rice by the 20th of the month," he complains.

It is also clear from the villagers that if you have a card, you are certain to get the benefits. The PDS works in Chhattisgarh. But that is not thanks to this law. It is an older story because of technology and persistence by the bureaucracy to free ration shops from the clutches of contractors. 'Smart cards' issued by the state, as well as those issued for health insurance under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, are capturing every transaction made by each ration shop in four districts since last year, making leakage next to impossible.

A food department official in this district recalls how ration shops were taken away from the hands of contractors with a great deal of effort and despite resistance by political heavyweights. Today, all ration shops in this district are owned by only cooperative societies. In other districts, this could be 40-60 per cent, he says.

The Bill of the central government cannot be expected to bring about a makeover in the accessibility of PDS in the whole country, except for changing the prices. For, the Bill has dropped a clause that had previously excluded states which don't modernise.

In Chhattisgarh, a vast majority of people in villages are engaged as daily wage labourers or farm labourers and many swear by the 35 kg entitlement of cheap foodgrain. Says Parasram, a labourer in Tum Gav in Pithora block, "I earn little as a labourer, as I don't go to the brick kiln. I have two children. The 35 kg of rice helps us survive. The rice may be cheap but everything else is expensive," he adds.

Issues

There are also voices of dissent. Some link cheap grain to non-availability of labour in fields, and some to growing slothfulness and drunkenness. That the state excise (liquor) receipts have had a 89.4 per cent growth between 2007 and 2012 might justify these claims. The biggest jump in this revenue took place in 2008-09 (23 per cent) and 2009-2010 (26 per cent).

A former farmer who runs a motorcycle parts shop in his village calls the scheme suicidal. M R Patel of Rajasevaiya village in Pithora block has 50 acres, the biggest land owner in the area, where most farmers have between two to 20 acres. He says: "I didn't get a single labourer in the last harvest season and I gave my land on lease this year. The Rs 2 rice and NREGA (the Centre's rural job guarantee scheme) has made people lazy. There is no urge to work."

Adding: "If the state wants to feed the poor, why not cook food and give. Cheap rice can't solve our problems. Pithora has 200,000 people but not a single hospital or doctor. Where is a scheme for this?''

He refers to last month's Naxal massacre in the state and says: "Why did no one reach the spot the whole night? This government is eating all money in the name of Naxals, besides splurging on freebies. Liquor sales are going up.''

Government officials agree there is a labour shortage. But they dismiss criticism of the 35 kg scheme or the food security law. "For the sake of 10 per cent of the population which can afford everything, we cant stop something that benefits 90 per cent," says J K Singh, the Assistant Food Officer in Mahasamund block.

The Business Standard, 15 June, 2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/chhattisgarh-implements-cheap-food-access-113061500836_1.html


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