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States must monitor PDS at every stage: PM

By Our Special Correspondent

PTI

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, and the Union Food Minister, Sharad Yadav, at an all-party meeting on public distribution system at the Parliament House complex in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI July 25. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today expressed dismay that despite the Government taking all possible steps to enable foodgrains to reach the poorest of the poor, offtake in the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category had not gone beyond 55 per cent during the last two years and called upon the States to gear up their machinery to help correct the situation.

Addressing an all-party meeting to discuss the shortcomings in the Public Distribution System (PDS), Mr. Vajpayee said the Centre had increased the food subsidy from Rs. 9,200 crores in 1999-2000 to nearly Rs. 24,000 crores last year for the benefit of the poor and the needy.

But, "we are not sure that every deserving consumer is receiving foodgrains under the PDS".

The problem of deficit in offtake of supplies, particularly under the BPL category and especially in food deficit and drought-affected States, lay mainly in the supply chain management at the distribution end, which was under the control of the States.

"We are faced with a peculiar dilemma (on the food front) of surplus on the resource side and deficit on the consumption end. The Central Government has done whatever is possible within the resource limitations to enhance efficiency of the supply chain. The problem, however, lies with the supply chain management at the distribution end".

The States should have a closer monitoring of the PDS at every stage, especially at the "last mile", take special measures to activate vigilance committees at fair price shop, block, district and State levels with the help of the NGOs and the civil society and take steps to ensure that the PDS (Control) Order, 2001, was implemented strictly in letter and in spirit.

"I seek the cooperation of all the State Governments to achieve the desired results. This is not to say that State administrations have not done their bit. It is only to emphasise the ever-increasing need for better and more efficient mechanisms," Mr. Vajpayee said.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Shivraj Patil and Suresh Pachouri (Congress), V.K. Malhotra (BJP), Somnath Chatterjee and Nilotpal Basu (CPI-M), Ajoy Chakraborty and V.V. Raghavan (CPI), K. Yerran Naidu (TDP), S. Viduthalai Virumbi (DMK), Saroja and P.G.Narayanan (AIADMK), and Prabhunath Singh (Samata Party).

Mr. Chatterjee and Mr. Basu emphasised that the system of targeted PDS introduced a few years ago had proved to be a failure and called for a return to the universal PDS system.

They told reporters later that the universal PDS, with same prices for all categories of consumers, was a must if the PDS had to succeed, as there was so much confusion as to who belonged to the BPL and who to the Above the Poverty Line category.

Also, because of differential pricing, while the poor were not in a position to take full advantage of their entitlements, the not-so-poor were forced to buy from the open markets as the prices there were lower.

Prabhunath Singh, during his intervention, emphasised the need to expand the foodgrain godown network to the district level and called for a tighter monitoring mechanism to make officials in charge of the PDS more accountable.

Addressing a press conference at the end of the meeting, which lasted two and a half hours, the Union Food Minister, Sharad Yadav, said the various suggestions made by the leaders would be studied for follow-up action.

The Government would also soon convene a meeting of Chief Ministers to elicit their views.

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