Half of Punjab is ‘officially poor’

Besides the subsidised atta-dal scheme,the beneficiaries will also be entitled to the benefits being extended to the state’s own ‘blue card holders’ which include scholarships for girls,medical insurance and houses for poor.

The expense of adding 1 lakh beneficiaries,as per estimates of the Department of Food and Civil Supply,is Rs 28 crore annually. Adding 15 lakh more families will entail an additional annual liability of Rs 420 crore. Credited as the “game-changer” in the run up to Assembly polls last year,the atta-dal scheme already owes Rs 1,616 crore to Punsup,the state procurement agency.

Owing to the high cost of pulses and non-allocation of funds from the finance department,the beneficiary families did not get any supply for nearly six months since December. The supply was resumed this year in July after the finance department sanctioned Rs 30 crore out of the budgeted the Rs 300 crore for the scheme.

Interestingly,a lesser percentage of families in Punjab will qualify as priority households under the Food Security Act as announced by the UPA government. According to Government of India figures,the average household size in Punjab is 4.7,which is taken as 4.5 for the purpose of calculating the number of beneficiaries. Since the poorest-of-the poor covered under Antyodaya Anna Yojana will remain in the same category,state’s 1.79 lakh Antyodaya families will continue to get subsidised foodgrains under AAY.