Kumar goes back empty-handed, Cabinet defers food subsidy plan

Even the support lent by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj at the long Cabinet meeting could not help Shanta’s dream project get through.

When asked, a Cabinet minister told The Indian Express that the matter had been deferred, as there was no time to discuss it, and not closed. Another reason cited for deferring the issue was the absence of Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, who heads the Group of Ministers (GoM) on food matters, at the meeting.

On Tuesday, the GoM had failed to take a decision on what is called the Antoyadaya scheme as Sinha had made it clear that he would not be able to find an additional Rs 2,200 crore in the name of the poor. He added that the food-subsidy element was pegged at Rs 8,100 crore in the budget proposal for 2000-2001. The same had gone up to Rs 11,000 crore after the report of the Expenditure Reforms Commission was taken into account. If the third category of `poorest of the poor’ families was added to the list, the subsidy would go up to Rs 14,000 crore.

Advani was also unsure over how the government agencies would be able to identify these poorest of the poor families in states. Another query raised by a minister was: “Today there may be a glut of foodgrains. But what would happen when there is a shortage? If the scheme is a one-time exception, it could be acceptable. But the same cannot be acceptable perpetually.”

At this juncture, Shanta Kumar became emotional. He said that government supported farmers by enhancing procurement prices and foodgrain production. The foodgrain stocks had already touched an all-time high of 400 lakh tonnes, while the mandatory buffer-stock norm was 188 lakh tonnes. Rice procurement was still going on and fresh wheat crop would arrive during the next five months. According to him, the cost of storing additional foodgrains — that is, more than the buffer stock norms — would be Rs 5,000 crore per year, while the additional financial burden on the exchequer to supply concessional foodgrains to the poorest of the poor would be Rs 1,200 crore per year.

Kumar added: “We have already abolished the policy of giving foodgrains to people Above Poverty Line (APL). We are providing foodgrains to 33 crore people (6.5 crore families) living Below Poverty Line (BPL) at half the price. The sample survey has said that one crore families out of these 6.5 BPL families are the worst-hit. What I am saying is that give them wheat and rice at Rs 2.65 and wheat at Rs 2.15 per kg.”

The minister said if the states failed to identify the poorest of the poor, the Centre would not give them food at this price. “As far as misuse of the policy is concerned, there could always be checks and balances.”

However, Sinha completely refused to agree to the concept that, he feared, would open the Pandora’s box. Even Kumar’s comment “There is no Badal to fight for these poor” failed to move him and the other ministers. Kumar was referring to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal recently forcing the Centre to grant a concession of Rs 350 crore for his state’s farmers and rice mill owners.

Determined not to take the matter lying down, Kumar brought the issue before the Cabinet again today. He had hoped that with Laxman backing the scheme, it would get the Cabinet nod. Kumar had also met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee separately to convince him of the need to implement the scheme. But nothing worked.