Nearly 56000 crore was
spend on food subsidies in 2011-12, the objective is surely to provide the most
intensive food security network across the country, we must understand that the
procurement, storage, transportation expenses are paid by the central
government, while identification of poor (BPL,APL) and distribution through
fair price shop is done by the state government.
Generally a bar coded
coupon is given to the beneficiary, over which quantity of food grain (rice and
wheat, 10 and 15 kg) and subsidised price that has to be paid by the
beneficiary , is also written on the coupon. Technically, dealer should charge
that written amount and supply written quantity of food grain but it never
happens anywhere in India, and that is a bitter fact.
How does it starts, let
me begin it from bottom to top, when a beneficiary goes to the shop he is being
supplied only 80% of the printed quantity but he is charged the full printed
amount on the coupon, and if dealer is honest then only he will get this supply
regularly every month, then why doesn’t he revolt, because dealer is a
muscleman he can simply deny any one to supply the grain. Dealer’s excuse for
this act------ he gets less quantity from the SFC (state food corp. Warehouse
from where he lifts the supply), what actually happens is that in SFC the gunny
bags is also weighted along with the food grains, and every bag does not
necessarily contain the standard 50 k.g. in the best possible case the average
is 45 kg per bag while dealer has to assume and pay for 50 k.g in each bag.
Dealer is given lifting
order for the same quantity which he has distributed last month, now dealer
creates the fake records and secure more supply, out of this secured supply
some 25% is never actually lifted by dealer from the SFC rather he sells there
itself on little less than market price, this is the same 25% that he makes cut
at the time of distribution, plus some of the coupon holders never turn up to
claim the food grains so he saves this quantity as well. Dealer is not alone in
this nexus, the SFC secures grains from FCI on weight without bag basis, means
50 quintal may be 110 bags, but FCI always assumes every bag contains 50 kg
when it supplies to dealers. Now SFC saves lot of bags, these bags are sold in
the underground market to wholesaler,
grain dealers and in mandis, the transporters have active role to play in this
as they move the trucks from here to there. The FCI knows all this but they
also have some interest in this play and they take their own share. At every
stage supervisory structure chooses to close the eyes as they have their own
share in this whole game.
Well , I am not
blaming or saying that this is what exactly happens everywhere, modes may be
different, but then if we have to look the whole system, we will find that over
the years system has improved a lot and from the siphoning off of 50-60% it has
reduced to 15%-20%, well this is no excuse, but we have consider the mammoth
scale at which it operates , sheer number of people it involves, and the deep
importance it holds for the food security.
What’s needed is not the complete overhaul but the gradual improvement,
because no alternate system is practical on ground at least for the time being