Can give free food to all under food security Act if states cooperate: Ram Vilas Paswan

The National Food Security Act (NFSA) that provides legal entitlement for cheap grain to 64 per cent of Indians now covers the entire country, with Kerala and Tamil Nadu agreeing to implement it. The Act was passed during the previous United Progressive Alliance government. Food minister RAM VILAS PASWAN tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee that as an expansion of NFSA, his ministry would consider distributing fortified and nutritious wheat and rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Edited excerpts:

Three years after its launch, the NFSA has become truly national, with all states becoming a part of it. What would be the biggest impact of this on the common man and the poor?

 

The biggest impact or benefit of NFSA and its nationwide coverage is that none can now say he is dying of hunger, as 75% of the rural population and 50% of  the urban population in all states have been covered. The beneficiaries would get wheat at Rs 2 a kg and rice at Rs 3 a kg. This is more than any BPL (below poverty line) list. If state governments are serious, we can give free food to all the 810-million identified beneficiaries, as the Centre is already bearing 91% of the subsidy for distributing cheap wheat and rice to the public through PDS. We have also notified the grievance redressal mechanism provided in NFSA, under which if any beneficiary does not get his due quantity of grain in time, he can claim an allowance at the rate of 1.25 times the MSP (minimum support price) either from the state concerned or the central government, whoever is responsible for the delay.

There was a lot of reluctance from states to join the NFSA. How did you manage to convince them?

It needed a lot of persuasion and there was public pressure on them as well. That apart, we told them, particularly Kerala and Tamil Nadu, that grain for only the BPL and the Antyodaya Anna Yojana families would be supplied at a subsidised rate from November 1. For Above Poverty Line families, it would have to be purchased at MSP, which made them fall in line. 

The ministry has also embarked on a massive task of digitisation of ration cards, seeding these with Aadhaar and DBT (direct benefits transfer) as and when possible. How much savings will all this accrue to the exchequer from, say, the next financial year?

The subsidy component might not go down by much and can happen only if the number of beneficiaries are curtailed, which is not at all the intention. What is happening is that the subsidy is getting better targeted and befitting the actual poor and needy — like we managed to save around Rs 14,000 crore by weeding out 26.5 million bogus ration cards. This can’t be called saving in the overall subsidy in its true sense, as fresh cards were issued against them. But, what it did was that it minimised leakage and pilferage. 

How far do you think DBT in PDS could be expanded?

We want to expand DBT in PDS to all parts of the country but there are limitations to this, as our banking and finance infrastructure is not too developed. Through DBT, we send money to states by the 15th of every month in lieu of foodgrain and the states transfer it to bank accounts of the beneficiaries by the 30th. Now, if the beneficiary does not have a bank account, he will not get his monthly allocation. Similarly, if a bank fails to alert the beneficiary in time, he will be deprived of his allowance. In remote areas, banks are at a distance, so he might end up spending more on transportation than the actual DBT. Therefore, unless the banking system and other infrastructure is fully geared up, it will be difficult to expand DBT in PDS. 

Now that NFSA is applicable to all parts of the country, do you want to expand it or make it bigger in scale by incorporating more items?

We plan to incorporate fortified wheat and rice in PDS for distribution under the Act and would ideally want to expand the basket of commodities to include things such as pulses but there are limitations. Suppose the Centre wants to sell pulses through PDS, it would require a huge quantity to feed, say, a 1 kg to 810 million people; our production is less. Hence, as of now, there is no plan to expand the basket of commodities that would be covered under NFSA.

The Act also mandates many other benefits like maternity benefits, cheap grains for youths etc. Are these being granted in accordance with the law?

Yes, all the provisions of the law are being strictly followed.

On pulses, chana (chickpea) prices have remained stubbornly high though that of most others have come down. What does the Centre plan to do now?

There is something called seasonal factors as well and all crops should not be expected to be grown all year-round. Here, I would also like to blame the states for not doing enough to control pulses prices. They neither want to act against hoarders, nor are willing to lift the pulses allocated at cheap rates by the Centre.

In such a scenario, how can somebody except the prices to come down?

Talking about allocation and lifting by states, sometime back, there were news reports of tonnes of onions bought by the Centre and states going waste for want of buyers.

How do you want to react to this?

Onion and potatoes are seasonal commodities and some damage in them can be expected if stored for long in unscientific conditions, but that's not an excuse and the Centre would do all things possible to prevent any damage to stored commodity.