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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jairam says ‘no' to foodgrains as part payment-K Balchand

Jairam says ‘no' to foodgrains as part payment-K Balchand

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published Published on Apr 22, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 22, 2012

“The best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out food security law”

Opposing the Union Finance and Food & Civil Supply Ministries' proposal for providing foodgrains as part payment of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh holds that the best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out the food security law and take care of the needy.

Acknowledging receipt of a letter from Food & Civil Supplies Minister K. V.Thomas, Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu that he would respond and convey his opposition to the proposal to ease the surplus foodgrain stock and lack of storage space through part wage payment in kind to MGNREGS workers.

Mr. Thomas in his letter pointed to the accumulating foodgrain stocks due to high production and increased procurement and suggested distributing surplus rice or wheat to workers under MGNREGS as part of their wages. Pointing out that foodgrains as part wages were provided for under programmes like Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana and the National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP), Mr. Thomas argued that a similar arrangement under MGNREGS would provide additional food security to the most vulnerable population.

Mr. Ramesh was apprehensive that such an arrangement would leave scope for corruption and defeat government efforts to ensure full payment of wages to workers through bank accounts. There were chances of less foodgrains being paid to the workers once again which would mean denying full wages to the already disadvantaged people.

“What we are trying to remedy will get reversed. We are trying to plug loopholes in payment of wages and that is why we have undertaken the massive task of financial inclusion and now Aadhaar-linked payments,” Mr. Ramesh stressed.

Under the food-for-work programme at least 4,000 km of roads were said to have been constructed in Andhra Pradesh, he said, and now the government there says these roads were never constructed. “Where did the foodgrains go? There was rampant corruption under the scheme.”

Mr. Ramesh said the new proposal would once again open up scope for middlemen to enter the scene and loot the entire lot of foodgrains provided for distribution. Moreover, MGNREGS wages were not fixed wages but were directly related to the work contributed and, hence, quantifying the portion of wage to be paid in kind would prove troublesome and an irritant, he cautioned.

Mr. Ramesh's other fear is that if the foodgrains allocated for distribution turn out to be rotten then the entire blame would fall on his Ministry.

He sought the opinion of leading social activists before firming up his stand. Social activist Jean Dreze opposed the proposal saying it would create more complications, delays and irregularities in an already fragile wage payment process.

Emphasising that the workers would benefit with an implicit increase in wages if the kind component was valued at BPL rates, Prof. Dreze was, however, apprehensive such an arrangement would lead to chaos in the poorer States.

The Hindu, 22 April, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3341074.ece


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