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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | UPA mulls wider coverage for subsidized grains by Nitin Sethi

UPA mulls wider coverage for subsidized grains by Nitin Sethi

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published Published on Nov 23, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 23, 2011
-The Times of India
 
The debate about Planning Commission's controversial poverty line could finally be buried. The UPA is now mulling doing away with the BPL-APL divide and providingsubsidized grains to all except those who get automatically excluded in the ongoing socio-economic caste census. But on the flipside, it also wants to reduce the entitlement from the proposed 35 kg to 25 kg instead for the poor. 

Along with the move to do away with the artificial cap imposed on number of beneficiaries of social sector schemes, the government is also planning to use data from the caste census to target the needy, using scheme-specific criteria from the survey rather than the Tendulkar report figures. 

While the latter move has secured considerable ground within the government, the former - lowering the entitlements but increasing coverage of the food security act -- is yet to be finalized.

Under the earlier draft of the bill, the government suggested providing 35 kg to those below the poverty line, rechristened as the priority group, and 15 kg to those above the poverty line or the general category. 

The move to spread the impact of the food bill wider but thinner could work to reduce the subsidy burden on the government but also end up cutting grain aid to many who already receive 35 kg either under the Antyoday Ann Yojna or under various state government initiatives in states such as Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh. For UPA, the political dividend of such a compromise would need to be assessed based on how the state governments are likely to respond. 

The socio-economic caste census pilot study had suggested that around 30% of the population would automatically get excluded in the identification of the poor. 

For the rest of the social sector schemes, the Planning Commission is considering doing away with BPL targeting starting with the 12th five-year plan. Instead, it would use criteria and data from the survey results to target beneficiaries who require specific inputs. The subsidized housing scheme - Indira Awas Yojna -- could be based upon responses to the single parameter about the surveyed owning permanent or temporary dwellings. Similarly, sanitation programmes could be deployed on hamlet-levels based on survey results. 

This would align with the UPA's new approach that poverty is 'multi-dimensional' and should not be measured purely by monthly expenditure. 


The Times of India, 24 November, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UPA-mulls-wider-coverage-for-subsidized-grains/articleshow/10850032.cms


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