Food security: non-Congress states’ plate to be fuller

What was perceived as a clincher by the Congress-led UPA government to garner bagfuls of votes in the 2014 elections, the food security law, might benefit the rival camp of non-Congress ruled states the most. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jul 21, 2013, 03:31:22 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan

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What was perceived as a clincher by the Congress-led UPA government to garner bagfuls of votes in the 2014 elections, the food security law, might benefit the rival camp of non-Congress ruled states the most.

The recently promulgated food security ordinance will cover almost 75-85% of the population in poor states such as UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, MP and Jharkhand.

Most of these states are not ruled by the Congress, where food allocations would increase substantially whereas that of some of the Congress ruled states may see only marginal hikes. At present the average population coverage in these states is around 47%.

The state-wise foodgrain allocation would change as the new law will cover 67% of the population. This proportion of the population would get a kilogram of rice for Rs. 3, wheat for Rs. 2 and coarse grain for Re. 1. Right now, only 34% of the population is entitled to get foodgrain at this cost.

The losers in the bargain would be states already having high coverage of subsidised foodgrain or now economically well-off, such as Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir and all north-eastern states, except Manipur.

The present public distribution policy was based on 1993-94 consumption expenditure survey, from which the state-wise poverty figures were derived.

The new inclusion formula devised by the Planning Commission and the food ministry for the food security law is based on 2011-12 consumption expenditure survey released in June this year.

Since states like Tamil Nadu and Himachal have developed at a much faster rate than Bimaru states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) since 1993-94, their allocation of foodgrain will fall.

In case of Tamil Nadu, it is expected to be reduced by around 12% — highest dip for any state. For Himachal and Uttarakhand, the reduction would be marginal.

The coverage in Bihar would increase from existing 58.2% in rural and 34.5% in urban to 87% and 73%, respectively.

In Uttar Pradesh, it will increase from 42.3% in rural and 35.4% in urban to 80.71% and 61.25%, respectively. The coverage would almost double in Manipur and Jharkhand.

The government estimates that impact of coverage will be additional 90 lakh tonnes over and above the existing annual allocation of 430 lakh tonnes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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