Rap for foodgrain purchase too

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pulled up the Union Government for “inefficient” foodgrain procurement and excessive reimbursement on procurement and incidental expenses that cost the exchequer over Rs 3,300 crore. The report tabled in Parliament said audit examination revealed deficiencies in the distribution of foodgrains, “which affected the achievement of food security”.The Union government incurred excess expenditure of Rs 263 crores due to various inefficiencies in the procurement operations of foodgrains by agencies. The off take of foodgrains under the Above the Poverty Line (APL) families was just 10.88 per cent of the total allotment between 2000-01 and 2004-05, reflecting consistently poor assessment of APL requirements, the report said. As regards the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) scheme, due to differences in norms, the number of BPL households identified by the states was 32 per cent higher than the estimates of the Union government leading to scaling down of rations. The report said CAG found irregularities in identification of BPL and Antodaya Anna Yojana beneficiaries, including delays in the identification process and issue of ration cards and failure to weed out ineligible/ bogus beneficiaries.