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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Food security: SC punches holes in Plan panel figures

Food security: SC punches holes in Plan panel figures

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published Published on Jul 23, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 23, 2011
-The Indian Express
 
Any common man with a little common sense can understand that a person cannot afford to consume 2,400 calories on an average income of Rs 20 or Rs 10 per day, the Supreme Court said on Friday, raising doubts about the government’s norms for providing food security to vulnerable sections like the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population.

Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said the Planning Commission’s calculation that a person earning a per capita of Rs 20 in urban areas and Rs 10 in rural areas of the country can afford 2,400 calories of food a day is “totally inadequate”.

“Nobody can consume 2400 calories with an average income of Rs 20 or Rs 10 anywhere in the country. Why do you press on with this when the data is very simple and any common man with a little common sense can understand our point?” the bench asked the Planning Commission counsel.

The court had in the previous hearing in May asked the Planning Commission to revise the per capita norms to determine BPL as per the price index of May 2011 or subsequent dates.

As per the Commission, the yardstick for including a person in the BPL category is if she or he earns an income less than Rs 20 per day in urban areas and Rs 10 in rural areas.

“According to the Tendulkar Committee, with the price level of 2011, it is impossible for an individual in an urban area to consume 2,100 calories on Rs 20 and an individual in a rural area to consume 2,400 calories on Rs 10,” the court had told the Commission in the last hearing.

Noting that food security is not black and white, the court had also wondered about the government’s plans to provide food security for a section of the population who are only marginally above the BPL line.

“A large section of the population which has marginally higher income than Rs 20 in urban areas and Rs 15 in rural areas also deserves food at subsidised rates,” the court had said, citing the reports of the court-appointed Justice DP Wadhwa Committee looking into the issue of streamlining public distribution system in the country.

The judges wanted the Centre to distribute foodgrains on the basis of the number of individual members in a family.

Meanwhile, the court directed the chief secretaries of all states to ensure that foodgrains were lifted in time. The court scheduled the case for August 18 for further hearing on the latest report filed by the Justice Wadhwa panel.

The Indian Express, 23 July, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Food-security--SC-punches-holes-in-Plan-panel-figures/821153/


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