NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday launched an attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the decision to further cut back food subsidies and said "it is the beginning of the dismantling of the public distribution system (PDS)."

The party spokesperson, Prakash Javadekar, said that the decision to increase the offtake price of foodgrains under the PDS for those above the poverty line and the reduction in the quantity each person could take from fair price shops would save the Government more than Rs. 4000 crore but at the cost of the poorest strata of society.

Rollback

sought

He recalled that it was the Vajpayee Government that increased the quota of foodgrains made available through the ration shops. That was now being reversed.

His charge was that since the UPA came power in May 2004, it had already cut back on food subsidies to the tune of 60 per cent.

"The BJP demands a rollback of this decision to cut food subsidies," Mr. Javadekar said.

The farmers were also hit by the UPA Government's policies, the party said.

"The mid-term economic review stated that there would be no increase in the minimum support price offered to farmers for wheat and rice," the BJP claimed.

On the issue of a commission being set up to identify minority educational institutions, the BJP said that it seemed the Congress was bent upon undoing court decisions, which quashed the minority status given to Aligarh Muslim University.

The effect of this, the spokesperson warned, would be as disastrous as was the overturning of the Shah Bano case judgment during the Rajiv Gandhi Government's tenure.

The BJP blamed the Congress for playing "cheap political tricks to further its vote bank politics." Mr. Javadekar's charge was that the Congress wanted to desperately get the Muslim vote back and was trying every means, including unconstitutional decisions, to do this.

Trade unions

oppose cut

New Delhi Special

Correspondent writes:

Trade unions have also strongly opposed the Government's decision to cut the food subsidy for the poor people, saying that it would hit mostly those living below the poverty line.

In a joint statement issued here, the unions said that this step would cause an unbearable financial burden on poorer sections and would jeopardise their food security.

"It is an outrageous move to dismantle the public distribution system and violation of the national common minimum programme, besides a total negation of the election mandate.''

New burdens

While the Government was readily granting concessions to industrialists, poorer sections were subjected to new burdens that would adversely affect their purchasing power and increase poverty, the statement said, calling upon the people to protest against the decision and seek reversal of the policy.

The All India Trade Union Congress, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha signed the statement.

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