Huge hole in the rice bowl

Over 3 lakh tonnes of food grain, enough to feed 15 lakh families, is pilfered from ration shops annually

The quantum of PDS rice pilfered from Tamil Nadu is so high that it is what 15.68 lakh families are entitled to draw free of cost every month.

A whopping 3.76 lakh tonnes of rice from the public distribution system goes missing annually. In financial terms, this means a loss of about Rs. 610 crore to the exchequer.  

Families that can draw a maximum of 20 kg of rice a month account for 1.86 crore ration cards in the State. The maximum rice entitlement per card has been used to calculate the number of ration cardholders, who can otherwise be supplied with the pilfered PDS rice.

The data is found in the Economic Survey for 2014-15, tabled in Parliament last week, in a chapter dealing with PDS rice leakages.

Quoting the NSS (National Sample Survey) report for 2011-12, the survey mentioned that the State’s allotment of rice was 35.32 lakh tonnes, whereas only 31.56 lakh tonnes were consumed. It has regarded the difference between the allotment and the consumption as leakage.

The State has about two crore family cards, of which 1.86 crore are rice-drawing cards. This includes around 19 lakh cards coming under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, for whom 35 kg rice is given free of cost.

However, the State can draw solace on one count. Against the all-India figure of leakage of 22 per cent, Tamil Nadu’s record is only 11 per cent.

Asked for their reaction, officials say the NSS data need not be considered reliable, as there is scope for infirmities. The general practice of the NSS authorities is to extrapolate their findings from a sample to the entire population of the State concerned.

To cite an example, they refer to the NSS data for kerosene, according to which Tamil Nadu was shown to have consumed in the same year about 47,500 kilolitres of kerosene higher than what was allotted. Given the fact that kerosene is no longer available in the open market, the officials wonder how it will be possible for people to get kerosene outside the PDS, that too such a large quantity. They add that the Economic Survey has acknowledged that there are “data problems” with a few States such as Tamil Nadu with regard to kerosene.    

Notwithstanding this argument, a group of officials say the NSS findings have understated the gravity of the PDS rice leakage problem. The share of bogus ration cards can be as high as 30 per cent.  It is to address the problem of bogus cards that the project of “smart cards,” using Aadhaar data, has been launched, the officials add.