States can distribute PDS flour without Centre nod

Move will check wheat pilferage as flour has limited shelf life.

The state governments, who are willing to distribute wheat flour to the resident cardholders under the public distribution system (PDS) by processing the wheat allocated by the central government, will now be able to do so without the Centre's permission. The Union Food Ministry has adopted a policy to encourage wheat flour distribution with certain conditions.

The ministry's guidelines follows the October 2007 Supreme Court order that directed the state governments to follow certain modalities in distribution of wheat flour under the PDS.

"The distribution of flour instead of wheat should help controlling the diversion of PDS wheat into the open market as the shelf life of flour is just about three weeks as against two years for wheat," said flour millers.

The state/union territory governments should distribute wheat flour through the network of fair price shops in quantities equal to about half of the monthly wheat allocations to ration cardholders from March 2008 onwards, said the food ministry in a recent communication to the state governments.

States such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim etc are already distributing wheat flour to their cardholders after obtaining permission from the centre.

The states, however, cannot distribute wheat products other than flour (such as sooji, maida, etc) from the wheat allocated by the central government. They should ensure that no unreasonable monetary advantage is allowed to flour mills in the process.

The flour to be distributed should conform to all quality specifications of whole-wheat flour prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955.

The quantity of unlifted wheat flour during the month, if any, may not be disposed of in the open market but carried forward to the next month, subject to its retaining the required quality.

The quantum of wheat flour distributed under the PDS should be reported to the central government on a monthly basis. The state government or its agencies should not make any profit in the implementation of the scheme.

The food ministry has asked the state governments to ensure regular monitoring of the scheme and ensure that there was no diversion of such flour into the open market.