Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party colleagues are not battling the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) only on the issue of Railway fare rises. A parallel confrontation is brewing between the Union food ministry and the West Bengal government over foodgrain allocation for the public distribution system (PDS) in the state. The day Dinesh Trivedi kept everyone guessing about his resignation as railway minister from the UPA Cabinet and Banerjee breathed fire in Kolkata, her minister for civil supplies held a press conference blaming the Centre for allocating less grain to the state PDS. The Centre argues that the state does not have a structure for procurement and distribution of grain (paddy, in this case) and relies on central allocations despite being the country’s largest paddy producer. Given this, it will have to put up with whatever the Centre supplies. A peeved Banerjee is believed to have asked her civil supplies minister to meet the Union food minister to exert pressure. Expect more trouble for the embattled UPA with its troublesome ally.
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