Ministry in a spot on SC grain order

Nov 16, 2010 - Amit Agnihotri |

New Delhi

The food ministry is in a bind after the Supreme Court asked it to continue with the additional allocation of 25 lakh tonnes of grains for the poor under the public distribution system (PDS). The additional off-take, including wheat and rice, had been issued in September to provide some respite to the poor from high food prices. It was meant for a period of six months.

Sources said the ministry had recently apprised the top court about the fact that off-take for the additional allocation of 25 lakh tonnes of grains meant for the below poverty line (BPL) persons, has been very low at 25 per cent.
Sources said a section within the ministry thought that perhaps the Supreme Court would ask the government to stop the additional allocation keeping in mind the low off-take. But that did not happen. “We are looking at the issue. It is a tricky situation,” said a senior official in the food ministry. It may be mentioned that the government had agreed to issue the additional grains, over and above the PDS quota for the BPL category, only after the top court took serious note of the issue. Earlier, concerned over reports of grains wasting in the open, the top court had expressed strong views and asked the government to distribute them for free among the poor.
The right to food campaign activists too had been asking the government for long to distribute surplus grains in the godowns and feed the millions of hungry in the country. Low off-take of grains under the scheme, despite food inflation around 12 per cent, indicates bottlenecks in the implementation of the PDS, said sources.

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