The Hindu Business Line : States resent BPL numbers ‘thrust’ on them by Centre

A one-day conference of State Food Ministers hosted by the Kerala Government has termed ‘unscientific’ the present practice of identifying below poverty line (BPL) households from New Delhi and thrusting a number on each State.

A declaration passed at the end of the conference held here on Saturday noted that surveys conducted by the States had shown much higher number of poor households than the one put out at the national level.

OWN BPL LIST

The conference called upon the Centre to allow States to have their own lists pertaining to the BPL category and also desist from targeting the public distribution system (PDS).

The general vision of an ideal food security system in the country had to be one where everyone had a right to adequate amount of food. Provisions for meeting exigencies such as natural calamities, economic recession and drought should also be included in the proposed food security system.

The Kerala Food Minister, Mr C. Divakaran; the Finance Minister, Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac; the Andhra Pradesh Food Minister, Mr J. Krishna Rao; and the Jammu and Kashmir Food Minister, Mr Qamar Ali Akhoon, briefed newspersons at the end of the conference.

The Centre should take the responsibility of leading the policy-making efforts in food grain management. If domestic procurements of food grain were not enough, the Centre should go in for imports, the Ministers said.

RATION ARTICLES

The conference also opposed the move to reduce the scale of issue of ration articles from 35 to 25 kg and also wanted a cut in the price of rice so allotted from Rs 3 to Rs 2 a kg.

The States should be allowed the freedom to subsidise the prices further, if necessary. A good food policy should be associated with increasing public investment in agriculture.

The meeting was of the view that the proposed Food Security Bill should make sure that the intervening role of the Central Government in ensuring adequate procurement at affordable prices was not compromised.

Another meeting of State Food Ministers will be held in Jammu and Kashmir to take the discussions further, the Ministers told newspersons.

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