FOOD ROTS BUT WE NEED A "BILL" TO DISTRIBUTE FOOD?
By Ruma Dubey
The Food Security Bill is a largesse which the Indian govt simply cannot afford. Its like a King distributing gold coins to his subjects despite his treasury hitting rock bottom. We all know that it a big political game but unfortunately a dangerous game where, we the middle class will be taxed and plied for more money. It would not be a surprise to see more who are now on the lower middle class of the economic ladder, slipping into the lowest. And once it becomes a law, no successive Govt will have the political gall to ever remove it or even reduce the largesse being doled out. Adding insult to injury – the scheme is to be rolled out in some states on 20th August, marking the birthday of Rajiv Gandhi - sounds like the days of the kings and zamindars!. Loan waivers have ruined our banking systems but guaranteed a second term for UPA. A third term? Shudder and shriek!
All this may sound anti-poor and pro-capitalist but it is maddening to see the sheer dichotomy being played out here. On one hand, the Govt wants to project itself as the benevolent ruler, taking care of the poorest by making food available to them at the lowest possible price. On the other hand, year after year, tones of food grains rot and decay.
We all have been seen seeing images of rotting foodgrains and somehow, like a ritual, every year, we see these images and wonder why nothing ever gets done. There are bumper harvests but the food grains rot and we have to live through high food inflation. Thus we have inflation and then a food security bill costing over Rs.1.25 lakh crore; all this while the bumper harvest lies rotting and putrefying in the open.
Around 2.5 lakh wheat lies out in the open in one of the largest “open storage” areas in Bhagola, Haryana. There is no cover, no protection, nothing. Rains came and created a mess; a mound of rotting grains, now feeding insects and rodents. The Govt is nonchalant – the very same food grains are being dried and will then be put into gunny bags, dated, 2013-14, to be sold.
The Commission for Agricultural Prices and Costs, in a recent paper titled “Buffer Stocking Policy in the wake of National Food Security Bill” stated that conventional buffer stock required a stock of 31.9 million tonnes on July 1 each year and post this Food Bill, a buffer stock of 46.7 million tonnes would be required. If we take into account some modest imports to meet the needs, minimum buffer stock required would be 41.7 million tones. So such mounds of ‘buffer grain’ will be stored and rotted but instead of distributing it at subsidized rates, it is ushering in a Food Security Bill. And the Govt will continue to receive more grains in these very “storage” areas and use the same inefficient public distribution network. And why does the Govt need a Food Bill at all when it could distribute these rotting food grains to poor, free of cost. But no; the Govt will not do that, allow pests and rodents to eat away grains and then bring in an expensive Bill for the very same purpose. This is travesty of development at its best!
Around 21 million tones of wheat rots every year. Even if we assume a price of Rs.15/kg, it means Rs.3150 crore is wasted away. Couldn’t that money be used to build an all-season storage facility and save food wastage?
Instead of spending this colossal amount of money on food bill, the money should ideally be used to modernize the agri sector, which desperately needs to get out of this morass. Climate has changed and our cultivation techniques also need to adapt. We need to focus on increasing agri production and not on subsidized food distribution. Money also needs to be spent big time on creating warehouses and storage facilities. This is one sector, the logistics sector, which could become a big money spinner for the Govt. Get more FDI in logistics and improvise the PDS.
The food bill makes absolutely no sense; no economic and logical sense but in politics, these two are not required. Yes, food will rot but we need a Rs.1.25 lakh crore Bill to give food to the poor. Yeh baat kuch hazam nahi hue!