Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ahilesh Yadav has strongly objected to the Food Ministry’s latest proposal for the National Food Security Bill, whereby 33% of the population would be excluded from the Public Distribution System across the board – in every state, and in rural as well as urban areas. The Chief Minister in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has specifically objected to the formula of uniform exclusion by which 33% of population in all states would be excluded from the benefits of the food security programme.
This, he says, would amount to discrimination against a state like Uttar Pradesh where poverty is much more than that of many states, and the per capital income is much lower than that of many states.
Yadav says that elementary fairness requires the coverage of the PDS to be wider in the poorer states. In fact, the Chief Minister is asking for nothing less than universal coverage in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. He says that to be fair, the Bill must allow cent% coverage in rural areas and 95% coverage in urban areas.
The letter dated September 10 this year cites the Tendulkar committee poverty estimates according to which while 37.7% of Uttar Pradesh population was below poverty line the all India average for BPL was 29.8%. The BPL population in states like Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra he says ranges between 12 to 24.5%, and hence it was not fair to club all states together.
In states like Haryana, Similarly he points out that the per capita income for the year 2009-10 for Uttar Pradesh was just Rs 23,392 which is only half of the all India average of Rs 46,117. In the above mentioned states he points out that the per capita income ranges between Rs 78,781 and Rs 59,179 .
"Keeping this in mind I request you to ensure that the coverage of the PDS under the Bill is universal in rural UP, and at least 95% in urban UP. The Bill should be modified accordingly," Yadav has said in his letter.
