As the editorial on the Food Security Bill highlights, the proposed law adds about Rs 35,000 crore to the unproductive food subsidy at a time when the country is faced with an unmanageable fiscal deficit and jobless growth. As the experience with the present public distribution system and working of another heavily subsidised MNREGS (Rs 40,000 crore) proved, much of this benefit will go to the corruption industry.
Administratively, when the procurement, storage and transportation system for the prevalent food subsidy programmes are grossly inefficient (29.7 million tonnes of foodgrain collected in excess of stocking norms are rotting, for example), the additional burden might prove to be a disaster and scandal.
Socially, together with MNREGS, the system will create a new class of nearly 66 per cent of the population that will be government-dependent for food and jobs and another class of the remaining one-third that will pay for the munificence — much of it not reaching the needy.
Politically, the Congress party won the elections in 1969 riding on the slogan of “Gareebi hatao” and in 2004 and 2009 by targeting the aam admi. It hopes to be lucky in the next elections also and, given the Indian public’s ever-forgiving nature, it might succeed. Since the Bill has electoral appeal, the opposition parties might agree to it, which is a frightening prospect for the country.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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