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Where is the grain, ask Food Act beneficiaries -Suvojit Bagchi
-The Hindu

Gaya (Bihar)/ Gumla (Jharkhand): It was a few tense minutes for nearly 1,000 residents gathered under a shamiana in Bharno block office in Gumla district, about 50 kilometres south of Ranchi. The crowd was awaiting the arrival of Sunil Kumar Keshari, the ration shop dealer of Bharno.

“Out of 200 residents of Pandarni village, only three can get rations from Keshari’s shop,” said Sukramani, a resident of the village.

Clearly it is a violation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, which has marked the eligibility and exclusion criteria. Ms. Sukramani, like many others, is sufficiently eligible to receive rations under Priority household (five kilogram of foodgrains per person per month) or Antyodaya (35 kilogram per month for each household) but is not covered under any.

An elaborate public hearing was conducted in Gaya and Gumla following a survey conducted in six States by researchers from the Department of Economics in Ranchi University and the IIT, Delhi. Halfway through the hearing in Bharno, the women of Pandarni started waving their yellow ration cards.

“The card lapsed and no-one bothered to check if we are getting ration for nearly a year,” Ms. Sukramani said. She nearly cried while talking to The Hindu later.

Inside the canopy, the villagers exploded into a rage as Mr. Keshari appeared. “Why are you not providing rations to these women,” asked Reetika Khera, an Associate Professor at the IIT.

“Because the list that I have does not feature their names,” said Mr. Keshari, who is the only dealer to have appeared in the hearing. So effectively there are two lists — one, with the households and the other without them. Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Keshari said he was not responsible for the anomaly. “It is provided to me by the government officials,” he said.

The mystery of two lists was partly explained by Suruchi, one of the student volunteers. “One list is based on whether they have Aadhaar card and the other is a simple list of beneficiaries downloaded from the website,” she said. “We receive less from the district, while in papers we are allotted more…the problem is at the top,” Mr. Keshari said.

Untrue, says Dreze

Professor of Economics and one of the architects of NFSA, Jean Dreze, questioned the allegation.

“This allegation could have been true a few years back, but got very little validity now as most of the States, including Jharkhand, have initiated doorstep delivery, up to the ration shops. So the dealer’s excuse is not acceptable,” Mr. Dreze said. Moreover, the dealer gets a commission which is “pretty good”, he said. “The purpose of NFSA was to make people aware of their entitlement — to make it simple and clear — and the purpose is served,” Mr. Dreze said.