‘Food security scheme launched sans infra setup’

NAVI MUMBAI: When Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan launched United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) flagship food security scheme from Airoli on Friday, the annoucement was made without establishing basic infrastructure or a concrete plan of disbursal, said observers. Sources also said that the list of possible beneficiaries from the district had not been prepared.
A day after the scheme was launched, officials said, it is unlikely that the list of supposed beneficiaries will be finished anytime soon. No provisions have been made to rent out temporary godowns or chalk out space to store the grains to be distributed. Highly placed sources in the state cabinet also said that no trucks had been hired to ferry the grains to the rural poor.
“It will take another two or three months for the entire infrastructure to be arranged,” a district official told TOI.
He also said that the government will have to move quickly or their promises will be laid to waste and it may adversely affect the UPA senior district official.
In rural areas, people with an annual income from Rs 15,001 to Rs 45,000 are eligible, while in urban areas, beneficiaries’ income should be between Rs 15,001 and Rs 59,000.
Those already benifiting from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antodaya schemes will also be included.
The figure is said to include 76.32% of the population above poverty line in rural areas and 45.34% in urban areas.
In as many as five of the 13 talukas in the district, the percentage of those above the Line closes in on 76.32%.
But those in the tribal belt who have not been tracked under either scheme will be difficult to categorize, officials said. “We are not sure how to arrive at a count of beneficiaries,” he added.
The district will also need 100 more trucks to ferry grains into the hinterland. It will need a supply of 2,056 metric tonne (mt) of wheat and 2,742mt of rice every month.
The scheme will cover 77 million of the total 112.3 million people in the state, doling out wheat at Rs 2 per kg, rice at Rs 3 per kg and coarse grain at Re 1 per kg. Nearly 4 lakh tonne of food grains will be distributed annually. The state plans to construct at least 600 more godowns.