Roll back food subsidy cut: DMK

Karunanidhi asks TR Baalu to raise issue with PM, registers protest with Sonia Gandhi

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's decision to cut food subsidy to below poverty line families has all its constituents up in arms against the move. If it was Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ministers Lalu Prasad and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh opposing the move at the Friday's Cabinet meet, the Left, too , was calling it a retrograde move.

Now a new voice has been added to the chorus, that of the DMK, which has demanded an immediate roll back of prices and the quantum of the subsidy.

DMK president M Karunanidhi has taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. In fax messages to Gandhi and Singh, Karunanidhi has demanded that the subsidy cut decision be reconsidered.

Writing in the DMK's official organ, Karunanidhi said he had asked Surface Transport Minister TR Baalu to meet the prime minister tomorrow and prevail upon him to reconsider the decision.

Though the Centre had stated that the subsidy cut would not affect the people below the poverty line, the government should withdraw the decision, Karunanidhi said. "We demand a roll back and the matter will be taken up at the highest levels," he wrote in the editorial.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had yesterday slammed the central government's decision to cut food subsidy and said her government would not revise the price of rice supplied through the public distribution system in the state, "even with this grave provocation".

The chief minister declared that her government would continue to supply rice to the BPL families at a subisidised rate of Rs 3.26 per kg.

Terming as most disgraceful the Centre's decision for cuts in the Antyodaya category quota, meant for the poorest of the poor,Jayalalithaa demanded its complete withdrawal. "The 12 ministers from Tamil Nadu should resign at once on this issue," she said.

With elections looming large on the state, the move to cut subsidy on grain for the poor could not have come at a worse time for the DMK, which is facing a combative Jayalalithaa at the hustings. The Centre's decision has provided enough ammunition to the AIADMK to attack and term the DMK anti-poor for being part of the UPA government.

She said the "treachery" of the DMK-led combine in acting against the interests of the state's people stood exposed.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Friday had decided to reduce the offtake quantity of grain for both the above poverty line (APL) and the BPL families to 20 kgs and 30 kgs, respectively, while increasing the issue prices for APL families by 70 per cent of the economic cost, and for the BPL families by 50 per cent.

The Left parties, meanwhile, held demonstrations yesterday to protest against the move. It also expected to bring up the matter with the prime minister.

According to sources, the government had been prepared to not just reduce the offtake of grain for the poor but also increase its issue price. It was political resistance at the Cabinet meeting that led to the prime minister's intervention and letting the issue price remain the same as before.