Parties vie to provide subsidised rice

The Pioneer, 15th April, 2009

Sudhir Mishra Balangir

Ever since the Naveen Patnaik Government announced to supply rice at Rs 2 per kg to all the Below Povert Line families in the State and to both BPL and APL families of the KBK region, it has caused worries among the other political parties as it was one of the easiest and safest methods to win the hearts of the voters.As the polling date approached, political parties started promising the moon and they also started promising to supply rice at subsidised prices. The first to react was the Congress. It claimed that the State Government was giving only Rs 3 for the entire scheme and the major chunk of the scheme was borne by the Central Government.If the Congress Government is voted to power it would provide rice at Rs 1 and dal, salt at subsidised prices to the poor people, announced senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra, while addressing a workers conference in the town.On the contrary, a few days later the All India Congress Committee (AICC) released its manifesto saying that it would provide rice at Rs three if voted to power. Few days later the Congress in its State manifesto once again claimed that it would provide rice at Rs 1, besides providing dal, salt and onion at subsidised rates if voted to power.The Bharatiya Janata Party went a step ahead as it promised to provide rice at Rs 1, dal at Rs 5 and salt free of cost. Moreover, according to a report, if the Biju Janata Dal is voted to power, Patnaik announced that it would hike the quantity of rice given under this scheme from 25 kg to 35 kg. The voters are going to take this seriously as they have seen the implementation of it. However, all the parties conveniently forget that mere announcement of schemes is not enough. There are several procedural difficulties at the implementation level which prevents the benefits reaching the poor people.Even as the subsidised rice at rupees greatly benefited people of KBK and other areas, yet many were deprived of getting the benefit because the new BPL survey list has not been finalised and the scheme is working on the basis of the 1997 BPL survey.If any party sincerely wants the subsidised rice go to poor people, it should streamline the distribution process and cheek all loopholes in the delivery system and should ready the list on the basis of which it should work. Even as political parties are making tall promises and their politics over the subsidised rice is going on, the price of rice touched a minimum Rs18 and the flour has touched Rs 19-20 per per kg.Amidst all this, the price of salt has touched Rs 10 per kg and onion at Rs12 to 24 and potato Rs 12. With reports of a price hike in store after the polls they are at a loss what to do? Is any body listening?