Food ministry’s grain of truth for Andhra CM

A Central team from the Ministry of Agriculture will be sent to Andhra Pradesh to ascertain whether free grain that has been sent to the state in the past has been put to good use. The team will hope to clear one nagging doubt: while Naidu keeps pleading for more grain under the pretext of drought or poverty, his state has been sending more than the requisite 50% of the total rice production to the Centre.

This could imply that while the Centre keeps giving Andhra Pradesh free foodgrain, it’s buying more than it ought to under the procurement scheme.

This conflict in numbers has led the ministry to believe that Andhra takes free grain and then sells it right back to the Government under the levy quota. Sources in the ministry confirmed that they have received several complaints and have conveyed their apprehension to Naidu. ‘‘We have received complaints which I have discussed with Naidu. But nothing can be conclusively said until we conduct an inquiry,’’ Shanta Kumar, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, told The Indian Express.

Andhra Pradesh’s total production of rice was 114.45 lakh tonnes in the year 2000-2001. While the maximum procurement should have been 57 lakh tonnes, the actual figure is 71 lakh tonnes for the same period. This could mean that the free grain is either being ploughed back into the procurement system, or the mill owners are selling more to the government to get a higher remuneration since the market price is less than what the government pays. The rice is only the latest gift from the Centre to the state: Andhra Pradesh has bagged 16.50 lakh tonnes of rice under the Food for Work programme, another 5 lakh tonnes under the Gramin Rozgar Yojna and 14.71 lakh tonnes under the Below Poverty Line Scheme. It has also received 96,000 tonnes under Above Poverty Line Scheme.