In an effort to galvanise States against the “unilateral and anti-people” stance of the Centre to the public distribution system, Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh Gundu Rao is writing to his counterparts across the country on the “reduced” role of the government in providing minimum support price to farmers in foodgrain procurement and the cut in kerosene quota to States.
Cut in MSP
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Mr. Rao said the Centre had written to States saying it “will not take part in MSP operations” in any State that announces bonus to paddy and wheat above the ceiling set by the Centre.
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At present, the Centre is also not supporting maize procurement in Karnataka on the ground that it is not part of the public distribution system.
Mr. Rao said this has resulted in the farmers in Karnataka getting an MSP of Rs. 1,360 a tonne as against Rs. 1,600 last year. The State was forced to procure maize on its own, without any support at Rs. 1,100 a tonne, which had hit procurement — which currently stands at only 950 tonnes.
On the other hand, the Union government had reduced the kerosene quota for Karnataka “without consultation or citing reasons” by 6.3 per cent, forcing the State to reduce distribution per family from five litres to four litres. These “anti-farmer” policies had hit even the BJP-ruled States of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, said Mr. Rao.
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UID link
The Minister said that starting February, ration shops will be asked to collect EPIC and UID numbers from cardholders. This was necessary because not all had provided the information. He, however, said that furnishing UID information was “not mandatory”.
Mr. Rao said the government had also decided to install GPS on all trucks carrying PDS foodgrains to contain pilferage.
“We will set a specific route and any deviation will be immediately detected,” he said.