 "PDS becomes game-changer in Bengal politics")
The scrappy whitewashed walls, stacks of foodgrain, a manual weighing scale and a few pieces of wooden furniture inside the shop, are in sharp contrast to the upscale interiors of nearby retail stores such as Big Bazaar and More.
Tapas Bagchi is a customer of both. For his monthly need of household items, he prefers one of the retail malls. For his staple foods, he turns up at the ration shop.
Till December last year, only 425 customers were entitled for subsidised food grains from the cooperative but since February this year, the number has swelled to 5,808. This keeps the store always crowded, says Manas Choudhury, a member of the cooperative.
The National Food Security Act became fully functional in West Bengal from January this year. However, the state rechristened it as Khadya Sathi scheme, which effectively brought 85 million out of the state’s population of around 90 million, under the ambit of the subsidised foodgrain distribution scheme.
Much before that, the Mamata Banerjee government had started giving rice at Rs 2 a kg to 32.8 million people in troubled areas in the state.
Observers say the state government’s subsidised rice scheme was one of the factors leading to Banerjee’s second victory in the state Assembly elections. In her second term, she is in no mood to loosen the government’s grip over this welfare scheme.
The Khadya Sathi scheme also marks the turnaround of West Bengal’s public distribution system (PDS), which had often led to public outrage during the Left regime.
Economist Jean Drèze, in a study conducted in June on West Bengal’s PDS, noted: “We were quite curious about Bengal as there were no detailed stories about PDS in Bengal… We were happily surprised that it is working out pretty well. PDS was really bad in Bengal but it is certainly (doing) enormously well now.”
The National Food Security Mission (NFSM) provides rice at Rs 3 a kg, wheat at Rs 2 a kg and coarse grain at Rs 1 a kg. West Bengal has decided to provide an additional subsidy of Rs 1 a kg on rice, reducing the price of subsidised rice to Rs 2 a kg.
Nearly 60 million beneficiaries of the NFSM were identified on the basis of Socio-economic Caste Survey in 2011. The West Bengal government went a step ahead to do its own survey and identified an additional 24 million beneficiaries for subsidised food grains. For the additional category, the state has devised Rajya Khadya Suraksha Yojana – RKSY 1 and RKSY 2 schemes – for giving subsidised rice and wheat.
This includes giving 35 kg of rice per family, per month at Rs 2 per kg to tea garden workers, as well as eight kg of rice to individuals per month, at Rs 2 per kg to the earlier-Naxal affected districts.
Two years ago, the state government also embarked upon an ambitious project to digitise all ration cards. Now, out of 85 million beneficiaries of PDS, nearly 70 million have digitised ration cards.
Rice mill owners who had become non-performing assets for banks in the past, have received a fresh lease of life with the increase in government procurement.
Mills had been facing closure due to a decline in demand for parboiled rice, this was mainly on account of Bangladesh attaining self-sufficiency in rice production. Farmers in West Bengal, have hence become completely dependent on government procurement for sustenance. So far this year, the government has procured around four million tonnes of paddy, against three million tonnes last year at the same period. The target is to procure a record 4.5 million tonnes of paddy .
PDS is turning out to become a powerful weapon of mass popularity for the incumbent government.