The Supreme Court-appointed Central Vigilance Committee's report on the sale of foodgrains through the public distribution system (PDS) throughout the country will not come as a surprise to anyone.
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The Committee's finding that shop-owners, transporters, and officers have been colluding to deprive the poor and that the whole system is in a shambles, only reinforces what earlier studies had pointed out more than a decade ago.
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The Committee headed by the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice D. P. Wadhwa, found that there was large-scale diversion and black marketing of PDS foodgrains. “Subsidised PDS foodgrains does not reach the poor who desperately need the same. These poor people never get PDS foodgrains in proper quantity and quality. The fair price owner is aware of bogus/fake ration cards and uses these for black marketing of PDS foodgrains,” the Committee's report said.
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Commenting on the State-wise situation, the Committee said the PDS has collapsed in Rajasthan; in Jharkhand, the system is a glaring example of what the system ought not to be; in Bihar, the beneficiaries get ration of a month after a wait of three-four months; in Gujarat, shop-owners admitted bribing the officials; in Orissa, grain storage agents are susceptible to political influence; in Karnataka, there is collusion between officials, investigating agencies, dealers, wholesalers and other vested interests.
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A study in 2007 had revealed that over a three-year period alone Rs 31,586 crore worth of wheat and rice meant for the poor were siphoned off and sold in the open market illegally.
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GROWING CORRUPTION :
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The number of “ghost” ration cards at that time, were found to be at a staggering 2.3 crore, while as many as l.21 crore deserving poor had been left out of the food security umbrella.
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The study had also pointed out that every year the poor were cheated out of 53.3 per cent of wheat and 39 per cent of rice allocated for PDS. The worst offenders were Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The North-East was worse off: Of the eight North-East States, not a single grain supplied to Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Assam reached the targeted population. In fact, it was found that the grains allotted did not even reach the States concerned and were siphoned off from Delhi itself.
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| Similarly, in the case of PDS kerosene too. About 35 per cent of it finds its way to the open market where it is sold at about Rs 25 a litre against the controlled price of Rs 11. It is also used to adulterate diesel and petrol. |
Every year lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains are allowed to rot and go waste because of the severe erosion of PDS-related infrastructure, improper warehousing facilities, decline in the number of fair price shops, understaffed monitoring mechanism, and laxity in anti-hoarding laws.
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| In fact, coinciding with the release of the report, there have been reports about foodgrains worth crores of rupees rotting on roads in Punjab for want of warehousing facilities. The Punjab Government has reportedly requested the Centre to lift the stock and distribute the same to the poor free of cost, if necessary. |
Meanwhile, the food subsidies paid by the Centre have more than doubled over the last four years to Rs 56,000 crore in 2009-10, but the Centre and the State governments have failed to reduce wastages and improve delivery mechanisms by plugging the enormous leakages.
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WAY FORWARD : |
To eliminate, or at least minimise, the prevailing corruption and wastages, a better alternative suggested by many experts is giving cash directly to the eligible poor through a coupon system. In fact, the latest Economic Survey has also come out with a similar suggestion which appears to be quite pragmatic. It says:
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The households should be given the coupons which can be used at PDS stores in lieu of money when buying wheat or rice and the stores should be free to charge the prevailing market rate.
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Such a system will be more impervious to corruption, says the Economic Survey. However, for the full success of this “coupon system” what is needed is an effective method of identifying the poor.
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| This is where the proposed Unique Identification (UID) System would come into play. Hopefully, the UID System would be in place before the passing of the National Food Security Act. Courtesy Business Line 060410 |
