Growing jitters in YSR administration

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: The Government of India’s move to enact the National Food Security Act is causing jitters in the Andhra Pradesh government.
For, it may not only lose huge quantities of rice and other commodities under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) but will also be forced to cut down heavily on its populist welfare schemes, what with the gross scaling down of number of below poverty line (BPL) families in accordance with the Planning Commission of India norms.
Now, taking a cue from Bihar, the state government has shot off a missive today to the Centre objecting to the “artificially low number of BPL families fixed by the Government of India.” AP has also opposed the “ceiling” on the number of BPL families as stipulated by the Planning Commission.
Andhra Pradesh currently has a ridiculous number of 2.20 crore BPL cards through which it has been supplying three lakh tonnes of rice at a highly-subsidised price of Rs 2-a-kg, with the subsidy bill crossing over Rs 4000 crore this year.
Moreover, the government has promised to increase the rice distribution from 20 kgs per family to 30 kgs from October and proportionately the rice requirement too will shoot up.
The state government it self admitted that of the 2.20 crore cards, more than 65 lakh could be bogus. Though it promised to weed out the bogus ration cards, the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is yet to initiate any action in this regard.
The Planning Commissioner, however, estimated the BPL families in AP to be around 41 lakh only. The Planning Commission’s estimate will form the basis for rice allocation from the Centre to the state under the proposed NFSA and this will result in a drastic cut in the allocation. “Our fear is that we may end up receiving not more than 50,000 tonnes if the number of BPL families is fixed at 41 lakh. This will result in a chaos as we will not be in a position to supply rice to all,” a top government source pointed out.
The Centre has circulated a concept note on the proposed NFSA to all states in which it mentioned that the “presently accepted number of BPL families” across the country is just 6.52 crore.
The state government has disputed this claim and noted that the number of BPL families fixed by the Government of India is “artificially low.”
It quoted the Arjun Sengupta Committee’s report to justify the high number of BPL families in the state and wanted the Centre to rework its estimates. “Given the ground realities, the state’s estimates on BPL families cannot be overlooked at any cost,” the AP government reportedly said in the letter to the Centre.