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PDS foodgrains problem due to cut in APL allocations: Brinda Karat

Brinda Karat

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Wednesday said that the problem of shortages of foodgrains in the Public Distribution System (PDS) in parts of West Bengal had occurred because of the cut in the allocations for the Above Poverty Line (APL) population by the Central government. She urged the Central government to enhance foodgrains allocations for the APL cardholders in the State “on urgent and immediate basis,” more so in view of the Puja festival in the State.

Reacting to press reports quoting Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on diversion of PDS foodgrains in some parts of the State, Ms. Karat said, “While there may be local factors at play in some of the areas, including leakages in the system, the main reason for current shortages in West Bengal is the huge cuts in allocations in foodgrains, both rice and wheat, for APL cardholders.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Pawar said that the allocations for APL population had been ‘rationalised’ on the basis of the off-take in the previous three years for all States, including West Bengal.

However, in a letter to Mr. Pawar written on Wednesday, Ms. Karat said that she had been given to understand that the rice allocation to West Bengal till March 2007, was 2.29-lakh tonnes a month, which was slashed to 7,700 tonnes, that is just 3.36 per cent of the earlier monthly allocation. In April 2007, the wheat allocation was halved to 49,040 tonnes from 98,112 tonnes the previous year.

Ms. Karat said: “The allocation to the districts has, therefore, had to be drastically reduced. In Birbhum, for example, where there have been shortages, the monthly allocation that was 10,000 tonnes had to be cut to less than one tenth. Since open market prices of foodgrains are high, APL cardholders find APL prices much more affordable and, therefore, a demand for foodgrains from the PDS increases. However, since allocations have been cut, the APL cardholders are unable to get the quotas they are entitled to.”

She said that it was in anticipation of such problems that the Central government was requested to stop the cuts in allocations. For this she had written to the Minister in July 2006 too. The West Bengal Government had also requested the Ministry through their various communications to increase the allocations to the State.

“Undoubtedly, the issue of pilferage has to be dealt with but such drastic measures as being taken by Central government punish the poor which include a large number of APL card holders, for no fault of theirs,” she said.

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