To counter Food Security Act,atta-dal scheme to cover one lakh more families
Countering FSA: Fresh survey ordered for beneficiaries,to entail additional Rs 28 cr annual expense
Credited as the “game-changer” in the 2012 Punjab Assembly polls helping the SAD-BJP alliance retain power,the populist Atta-dal scheme is set to benefit another one lakh families in addition to the existing list of 15.8 lakh.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal last week ordered a fresh survey of the beneficiaries in a move which is seen as countering the UPA’s Food Security Act (FSA). The survey aims to bring more “poor” into the blue cardholders fold.
The scheme was launched on August 15 by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal soon after coming to power in 2007 as part part of SAD’s poll manifesto promise. The government had scaled up the numbers in three surveys done in five years of its last tenure,keeping annual income limit of Rs 30,000 as the yardstick. However,the last earlier survey done by deputy commissioners was fraught with allegations of undeserving and fictitious beneficiaries.
In a recent meeting with the food and civil supplies department,Sukhbir asked it to work out the expense of adding another one lakh beneficiaries. The department has estimated it at Rs 28 crore annually. “The survey will be carried out by the departments of panchayats and health. The health department has sought the list of blue cardholders,which we have provided,” director,food and civil supplies,SS Johal said.
The yardstick for enlisting new blue card beneficiaries is yet to be announced.
Interestingly,eve as the ruling alliance dismissed the Food Security ordinance as “half-baked,populist and remake” of its atta-dal scheme,it has been struggling to keep the scheme afloat. The department has resumed the supply of pulses from July first week after it was abruptly stopped in December last year due to cash crunch.
The money for pulses came only after the UPA renewed efforts to push its ordinance. The Punjab finance department on May 21 released Rs 30 crore for tendering for pulses to meet the monthly bill of Rs 7-8 crore. The amount would meet the requirement of the quarter beginning July.
The state government is still to clear pending dues of Rs 1,593 crore to the four state agencies to making the procurements. Despite the high arrears,the allocation for the scheme in this budget was scaled down by almost half — from Rs 700 crore last year to Rs 350 crore this year — “in anticipation” of the Food Security Act. The state supplies 2.5 kg pulses to each beneficiary household with five members or 500 grams per member in families with less than five members.
While Punjab has been faltering on supplying pulses,almost half of the other component of the scheme,wheat,too is being met out of PDS supplies for above poverty line (APL) families. According to sources in the department,of the requirement of 3.6 lakh tonnes of wheat for the 15.8 lakh families,the state is procuring just one lakh tonnes and the remaining 2.6 lakh tonnes is coming from the PDS for APL families. For 35 kg wheat being supplied to each beneficiary,just 15 kg is coming from the state pool.
To counter FSA,the Badal government in the run-up to the parliamentary polls would also publicise how its atta-dal scheme is “feeding Punjab’s poor”. But the department contends,the FSA would help ease off Punjab’s atta-dal “blues” and result in saving Rs 180 crore annually on account of wheat.
Meanwhile,a delegation of Punjab Congress MPs and MLAs today called on UPA chairperson and party president Sonia Gandhi claiming that “experience in Punjab shows that central schemes have been abused regularly to get political mileage by Akali-BJP government”. Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Sunil Jakhar said in a statement that the delegation apprised Sonia that huge quantities of wheat and kerosene meant for BPL and APL families have been sold in the open market.
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