The differences in opinion between the Central and State governments over fixing the number of Below the Poverty Line (BPL) cardholders are likely to delay the implementation of the Food Security Act in the State.
The State government’s plan to implement the Act from November 1 is likely to be deferred at least by a month. While the State government had sought grain allotment for 14 lakh BPL families or the priority sector, the Centre had fixed it at 10.25 lakh families. Which means, about 3.75 lakh families will have to opt out of the public distribution system.
BPL headcountThe State government had earlier fixed the number of BPL families at 25 lakh.
Official sources told The Hindu here that the Centre had offered to continue grain allotment for the 3.75 lakh families even after enforcing the Act but it would be given only at the rates fixed for the Above Poverty Line (APL) or non-priority sector families.
Once the families moved out of the purview of the Act, the Centre could scrap the allotment without prior notice.
“Kerala and Tamil Nadu have an efficient public distribution system which covers almost 58 per cent families. Whether the Centre will be able to honour its commitment on retaining the system is a matter of concern. Since the Centre is rapidly switching over to a mode of restricting subsidies to target groups, the commitment may be repealed any time,” the sources said.
‘Door delivery’ being one of the highlights of the Act, grain silos will have to be provided to store at least three months’ stock of around 2.98 lakh tonnes.
Warehouses will have to be constructed in all districts and taluks for smooth grain distribution.
FCI capacity
The Food Corporation of India had said the storage capacity in three districts had already been enhanced to 15,000 and proposed to further increase it to 25,000 tonnes soon.
But the Food and Civil Supplies Department was reported to be going slow on the process. But for the stamping of the BPL and APL cards into priority and non-priority cards, end-to-end computerisation and modernisation of the PDS had not made any palpable progress so far. It was unlikely to be completed before the year-end, the sources said.
