Food Ministry Notice To Bihar Highlights Laloos Loss Of Clout

A notice by food minister D P Yadav, the political protege of Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Yadav, has sent shock waves through the Bihar Janata Dal. The notice to the Chief Minister seeks reasons as to why the Centre should not deny the state a share of its quota of foodgrain. The share of grain in question is the quota slated for sale to those below the poverty line, at half the public distribution system price.

The food minister has dashed the hopes of his political mentor, who apparantly thought that with Yadav in the food ministry he would be able to get the food quota without fulfilling the necessary formality of identifying those below the poverty line and issuing red ration cards to them.

Laloo Prasad, who has lost much of his political shine over the multi crore fodder scam, has obviously lost considerable ground to Prime Minister Deve Gowda in the Janata Dal. The latest notice of the Centre to Laloo only reinforces this. Even his close followers, like the food minister, prefer not to compromise their position to please him.

DP Yadav threw up his hands in despair when he spoke about the implementation of the new PDS scheme. None of the state governments, except the four southern states of Kerala, Andhra pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnata, and West Bengal, were geared up for implementation of the subsidised PDS. His own home state Bihar was perhaps the most lethargic in implementing the scheme, he said.

The minister has issued notice to Bihar, warning that unless it identified those below the poverty line and issued the red cards to them, the Centre would be forced to hold back the grains meant for the state.

In contrast, the southern states have an elaborate PDS system. They have even issued the red cards to those who are eleigible for the half-price under the new schemes.