The Centre has begun consulting states on implementing its Rs 3 per kg rice/wheat scheme for the poor, but discussions got stuck on what would be the basis for defining the beneficiaries. The meeting chaired by Union Food Secretary Alka Sirohi yesterday was aimed at giving shape to the Congress' poll promise of providing cheap rations to Below Poverty Line families. President Pratibha Patil had mentioned the same in her address to the joint sitting of Parliament earlier this month. "My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act... Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban areas will be entitled, by law, to 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg." But state food secretaries couldn't agree on what should be the basis for allocation of food grains or how to arrive at the number of beneficiaries. Some of them wanted food grains to be allocated based on state's assessment of BPL families and not the model prescribed by the Planning Commission. Under the Planning Commission model, the Centre allocates food grains to over four crore BPL families, while the states have issued BPL card to over eight crore families. Some states felt that the responsibility of implementing the scheme should not rest with them, as it is the Centre that would be deciding on the quantity and number of beneficiaries.
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