Following a rap on the knuckles by the Supreme Court over foodgrains rotting while millions went hungry, the government on Thursday decided to increase the number of BPL families covered under the public distribution system and ordered an additional 25 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice for them in the next six months.
This means, though, that the government is not likely to give free foodgrains to the poor as ordered by the Supreme Court.
An Empowered Group of Ministers on food, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, met here Thursday to frame a reply to the court, and decided on an overhaul of the “inefficient and corrupt” PDS against which the court had issued strictures. After the EGoM meeting, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said the government will upgrade the number of BPL families under PDS, now at 6.5 crores. Sources said the government was likely to add another 1.5 crore BPL beneficiaries. After the proposed overhaul, the number of BPL families is likely to increase to 8.1 crores, as suggested by the Planning Commission for 2010.
“The government is considering an overhaul of PDS, including upgrading the number of eligible BPL families. This is expected to increase the number of BPL families eligible for assistance,” Mr Pawar said.
These steps are expected to enhance assistance to BPL families and will result in an increase in the allocation for the poor, he added.
Under the PDS, 6.52 crore BPL families get 35 kg foodgrains per month — rice at `5.65 per kg and wheat at `4.15 per kg.
Annoyed by the minister’s remark that the Supreme Court had “suggested” distribution of foodgrains to the poor for free rather than let it rot, the court on Tuesday pulled up the government for not complying with its earlier order. “It was not a suggestion. It is there in our order. You tell the minister about it,” a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma told the additional solicitor-general, expressing displeasure at government’s inaction on a revamp of PDS. “Give it to the hungry poor instead of letting grains go down the drain.”