PDS a lesson in corruption,finds report

Talwar conducted the survey on behalf of the Union Ministry of Rural Development.

While the Centre estimated the number of AAY families up to 19.86 lakh families in 2004-05,till April 30 2009,the ration cards issued under the scheme by the state government were for only 15.36 lakh,depriving 4.06 lakh households of subsidised ration.

Under the AAY scheme,both rice and wheat are available for Rs 2,up to supply of 35 kg to a BPL family. “ This amounts to a missed subsidy of Rs 1508.64 crore in five years

(assuming the rice costs Rs 16 a kg and each family gets 420 kg of rice per year),” said Talwar.

Another lacunae that has hit the scheme is the fact that the number of ration cards in the state is higher than the population of the state. “While the projected population of the state in 2011 is 8.95 crore,the number of ration cards in March 2010 is 8.98 crores,three lakh more than the projected population of the state,” revealed the report pointing at corruption and availability of bogus ration cards in the state. According to Talwar,each ration shop has about 500-700 bogus ration cards. The survey reveals that 97 per cent of fair price shops

(ration sops) are private-owned and majority of them are open only 2-3 days a week and are not easily accessed by people.

Similarly,the number of the beneficiaries of Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (where a BPL person above 65 years gets Rs 400 per month) at present is 12.57 lakh people while projected population in 2011 is only 12.34 lakh people who are under the below poverty line and above 65 years. “Despite more beneficiaries under the scheme from villages we come across many who are not able to avail the benefit of the scheme,” said Talwar.

In another social assistance scheme like National Family Benefit Scheme (where Rs 10,000 is given after death of the earning member of a BPL family),the number of beneficiaries has surprisingly gone down by 27 per cent which again points at a lacunae in scheme implementation.

“The state government has four months to take action on the report after which both the findings and the action taken by the government will be submitted to the Supreme Court,” said Talwar. The report has recommended universalisation of food entitlement scheme to remove the issue of inclusion or non-inclusion of beneficiaries under the BPL category and that the fair price shops should be taken up by the government.

2 held for showing black flags to CM

Midnapore: Two Youth Congress members were arrested for showing black flag to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as he arrived in Midnapore to review the drought situation on Monday. Atin Gainti and Dipu Biswas were arrested when they waved black flags to the CM alleging “all-round failure” of the Left Front government,said police.

PTI