Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan while detailing the efforts of his Ministry in distributing foodgrains across the country, blames State governments for the gap in enrolling beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System and failing to embrace the one nation-one ration card scheme.
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What are the steps taken by your ministry to handle the ongoing crisis?
I would like to thank all the officials of Food Corporation of India (FCI) from the CMD to the labourers, who have been working round the clock. We have no shortage of food grains. But there could have been logistical problems. The FCI has met the challenge head on.
Till now 1,404 rail rakes carrying 39.41 LMT food grains have been transported. We have a stock of 588.9 lakh tonnes of food grains. And monthly we need 60 lakh tonnes. And there will be additional procurement now of the rabi crop that is being harvested. We have fixed wheat at ₹21/kg and rice at ₹22/ kg for the State governments to procure, which is far lower than the MSP rate.
We have told the State governments to procure as much as they want. Even those who are conducting relief work can approach us and take the food grains from us. This includes the National Disaster Management Authority or State Disaster Management Authority.
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Many have pointed out that the quota for foodgrains have been fixed as per the 2011 census, which is why the State governments are reluctant to issue fresh ration cards. Are you addressing this problem?
As per 2011 census, 50% of urban population and 75% rural population have to be covered under Public Distribution System (PDS). As per the census, there should be 81,34,9400 beneficiaries. It is the State governments’ responsibility to enroll beneficiaries. As per our report on Thursday evening, the State governments could have added 39.89 lakh ration cards going just by the 2011 census figures.
Only 15 States and UTs have utilised their quota. These include Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, M.P., Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Lakshadweep and Ladakh.
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But a few States that lag behind like Bihar can issue 14.5 lakh additional ration cards or Tamil Nadu could have had 7.36 lakh more ration cards and so on. I spoke to Sushil Modi, Deputy CM of Bihar, and he assured me that the State government is stepping in. I am writing to all the State governments to fill in this gap.
The Centre has not stopped the States from increasing the list of beneficiaries. They need to be held accountable for this lapse.
Your ministry for long has been talking about one nation-one ration card system, which would have helped migrant workers get ration wherever they were stranded. What’s the status of this project?
The project has been halted now because of the pandemic. Yes, this project would have helped: say a Bihari migrant who is working in Gujarat, could have availed PDS. This is made possible by e-pos machines and hundred percentage linkage of ration cards with Aadhaar card.
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So far, 12 States have embraced the project including Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura. U.P. and Bihar, have not so far installed e-pos machines in all the fair price shops. We have been sending repeated reminders to the State governments. The Union government can only nudge — it’s for the State governments to implement the scheme.
The ongoing lockdown has severely crippled the economy and from all projections it will have a longer impact. In such a scenario would you make PDS universal?
This is a larger policy decision that my ministry alone can’t take. We will have to brainstorm such a proposal with all stakeholders and at all levels. It’s ultimately for the Union Cabinet to take a call. Personally, I think it will be akin to opening a Pandora’s box. We have a huge population and PDS can be extended only for the needy.
Also read: Coronavirus lockdown | Enough grains for 9 months, says Ram Vilas Paswan
Lakhs and lakhs of migrants workers are stranded in the cities, shouldn't the government had arranged special transport to ferry them back home?
Every one wants to reach home and rightly so. Those who are hundred of miles away from home will have all sorts of anxieties. Even if they get food, that alone is not enough, they may need soap, oil... so on. But the government rightly brought the lock down at the hour that it did. Even a few days delay could have been fatal. And transporting the migrant workers is no mean task. We saw what happened in Bandra, Mumbai. Just on the basis of a rumour that a train is plying thousands of workers collecting, forgetting all about social distancing norms and other precautions.
