Southern States
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Kerala
Centre may cut prices for APL category
By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 21. The Union Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Shanta Kumar, has said that the Centre was considering the plea of States like Kerala seeking a further reduction in the prices of ration articles meant for those segments who come above the poverty line (APL).
Addressing a `Meet-the-Press' programme here today, the Minister said that Kerala had urged the Centre to fix the APL price below the prevalent market rates. He said he had given directions to the Food Corporation of India to ensure the supply of good quality rice to the State for distribution through the PDS. The Centre was very conscious about the quality of food stuff in the PDS. It had decided to strictly follow the norms fixed for procurement, besides taking steps to phase out out-dated rice.
The Minister said that the Centre had cut the price of ration articles for the APL category by 30 per cent, but hinted that a further cut would not be easy. The food subsidy bill had gone up to Rs 20,000 from Rs 12,500 this year. In reply to a question, he said that the Union Government would not compromise on the issue of food security. But all strategies followed so far had become irrelevant because these were attuned to meet scarcity conditions. A shift in strategies had become necessary since the country was surplus in food grains.
With this in mind the Centre had decided to come out with a new food grain policy and had constituted a committee for drafting this. He lamented that the off-take of food grains from the PDS was much below expectations even for those coming under the below the poverty line category, with the all-India figures being just 46 per cent. He, however, congratulated the State for achieving 100 per cent off-take.
He said that the joint sampling mechanism involving the State Government and FCI officials would go a long way in addressing the complaints regarding the poor quality of rice. In reply to another question, he said that old stock of food grains would be auctioned off.
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