Hundreds of people across the city gathered on Sunday to air their grievances over the persistent shortage of food grain and its dismal quality at a number of fair price shops (FPS).
“People queue up the whole day, but there is never enough stock. They don't know when the stocks arrive. How can inadequate quantities of food grain arrive in the first place?” Shilpa Salve from Jogeshwari said at a public hearing on the public distribution system (PDS).
Part of Ms. Salve's answer can lie in the off-take by the State government, which falls short of the amount allotted by the Centre.
As Simpreet Singh of the Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan pointed out, as per the Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2008-09, the State government lifted thousands of tonnes of wheat and rice from the quota allotted by the Centre for below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (APL) card holders, and for the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).
In the BPL category, the State's off-take of rice in 2008-09 was 4.20 lakh tonnes (87.3 per cent) against the allotment of 4.81 lakh tonnes. The off-take of wheat was 4.68 lakh tonnes (90.7 per cent) of the allotment of 5.16 lakh tonnes.
In the APL category, while there was 100 per cent off-take of rice, that of wheat stood at a dismal 55 per cent. This was way below the off-take of 72 per cent in the previous year of 2007-08.
In the AAY category, the off-take percentages for rice and wheat in 2008-09 were 89.3 and 86.9 respectively.
When it comes to sugar, the rate falls even further. The Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2008-09 states: “The ratio of sugar to be sold in the open market and levy sugar is fixed by the Central government as 9:1 of the total sugar production since March 1, 2002. Levy sugar thus collected is being supplied to the BPL families through PDS.
“In 2007-08, total allotment of sugar was 17.19 lakh quintals, whereas lifting was only 0.97 lakh quintals [5.63 per cent]. In 2008-09, the total allotment was 17.64 lakh quintals, whereas lifting was 5.72 lakh quintals [32.43 per cent].”
No guarantee
“There is no guarantee that you will get the rations on time and in the quantities that you are entitled to. One month you get only rice, the next only wheat. Plus, the stock is full of impurities. You cannot put in hard labour by eating such food,” said Sanjeevani Balsode from Dharavi.
Indavi Tulpule, who works in Thane district, said: “The historical importance of the PDS or social distribution network has been lost. The government is just not ready to take the responsibility of providing food security to the people.”
Food availability and quality are found to be wanting in a number of FPS in Mumbai, which number about 50,000. Representatives of many grassroots groups working towards securing ration cards in their localities complain of black-marketing and rampant corruption.
By the government's own admission, around 12 per cent of the 50,000 fair price shops surveyed in the State have been found to be “faulty.”
As per the survey, Mr. Singh pointed out, of the 49,258 FPS that were inspected, 5,950 were found to be faulty, and notably, action was taken only against 906 shops.
“Why was action taken only against 900 shops? Sitting in this financial capital, we are forced to say that [people] don't get two square meals. Instead of APL and BPL, we hear more often of IPL,” he said.
