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| Rice at Rs 2 leaves them hungry |
| R Krishna Das / Raipur Jul 24, 2009, 01:29 IST |
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Rakesh, a youth from Banrasi village in Chhattisgarh, is eager to marry and a trifle annoyed that his father, Tulsidas, has been putting it off.
Tulsidas, a daily wage earner living below the poverty line (BPL), does not want to add another member to his family of six members. For, managing two additional meals for another member would be a daunting task for him.
Tulsidas had been getting 35 kg of rice for just Rs 3 a kg every month as part of the state government’s subsidised rice scheme. But the quantity of rice he gets every month is not sufficient to cater to the needs of his family. Last fortnight, the monthly allocation of the ration rice to his family shrank to 30 kg as the prices were further reduced to Rs 2 a kg by Chief Minister Raman Singh.
“We eat only rice and the daily requirement of the family is a little less than 2 kg,” says Tulsidas. So, the ration rice barely suffices for 10 days. “I buy about 30 kg rice from the open market for the remaining month,” he says. And he pays about Rs 15 a kg in the open market.
When Rakesh, who is in his 20s, talks about his marriage, Tulsidas has to think twice. “I am helpless and have no other option but to avoid his marriage now,” he says with a pained look.
Tulsidas has been given only one BPL card and is entitled to get 35 kg rice. He asks why the rice is not linked to the number of family members, as it used to be earlier before the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) was launched in 1992.
Under the TPDS, each family and not individual is eligible to get the benefit of the subsidised rice. “Besides rice, we have to arrange other commodities, including firewood, to run the house and my earnings are all spent in that,” Tulsidas says.
His views are echoed by Shantibai, another villager. “I require 4 kg rice per day for 11 members in the family. The subsidised rice scheme of the state government has given some respite, but it has not ended out deprivation,” she says.
“There are villagers with two or three members in the family, who are also getting 35 kg rice. How can such a system be fair?” she asks.
The village, having a population of 1,200, has 102 families enrolled in the BPL list. About 50 needy people have not been included in the list. Villagers are also angry about the process of inclusion in the list. During a survey, the names of those who have a fan, a television set, or a bicycle were not included, says village secretary Keshav Tandon.
Villagers say that the criterion of identifying a BPL family is unfair. “Rich people for whom we work give us a fan or an old black and white television as gift. But this does not mean that we are affluent,” says Ramla, another villager.
Ramla, among many others, will have to wait for another four years to see his name included in the BPL list for the state government’s subsidised rice scheme.
The survey is conducted in every five years, and the last one in the village was done only last year.
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