Will creaky PDS able to sustain Food Security Bill?

Entitlements for beneficiaries in Antodaya Anna Yojana under which 35 kg grains provided per family will be retained in the Bill

The union cabinet has cleared the much-awaited revised National Food Security Bill (NFSB) that seeks to provide legal entitlement of cheap grains to almost 67% of the India population or 82-84 crore people.

The Bill which has been billed as UPA-2’s most ambitious social security programme is now expected to tabled in Parliament by Friday or if not then surely in the second half of the Budget session.

The Bill will provide guaranteed 5 kilograms of rice, wheat or coarse cereals to all the identified beneficiaries at a flat rate of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 1 for coarse cereals.

There would not be any Above or Below Poverty Line demarcation but entitlements for beneficiaries under the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) under which 35 kilograms of grains is provided per family will be retained in the Bill as well.

The Bill though an ambitious programme based its social security idea on the creaky Public Distribution Platform. The PDS is carried out nationwide with the help of over 5,00,000 ration shops.

However, the biggest drawback for the National Food Security Bill is that it relies heavily on the creaky Public Distribution System that has been blamed time and again for failing to deliver the goods because of massive pilferage, ration cards being made in the name of ineligible people and no actual benefit to the beneficiaries.

Infact, a study done by the Planning Commission in 2005 showed that 58% of the subsidized foodgrains issued from the central pool do not reach the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families because of identification errors, non-transparent operation and unethical practices in the implementation of TPDS.

In such a situation, pushing the National Food Security Bill could be disastrous. Experts like Chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) have strongly advocated shifting towards a system of direct transfer of subsidies in cash as against distributing cheap foodgrains to get more benefits.

However, food ministry said that the pilferage has come down and now is just around 10-15 percent of the total foodgrains allocated through PDS. It will come down further as digitization of database and issuance of biometric ration cards has been completed in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh till December 2012

It is in progress in Bihar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tripura. “The number of bogus ration cards has also been significantly reduced and pilferage will further come down as number of bogus ration cards is fully eliminated,” a senior food ministry official said.

He said moreover, the states will implement the provisions of the food bill only if their entire ration card database is digitized. The real picture will be cleared once actual implementation starts in select few states.