The government on Monday said it was open to tweaking the open-market sale (OMS) scheme for rice after getting a response less than expected in the sale tender a few days ago, and it hoped participation would pick up in subsequent tenders while the process continued till March next year.
On the complaints of Karnataka, that it is being denied rice for its new Anna Bhagya Scheme, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said surplus grains, rice or wheat, in the Central pool should be for all states and not one.
He was talking to reporters about the poor response to the open market sale. In the tender, around 380,000 tonnes of rice was offered but just 170 tonnes could be sold, to five bidders.
Chopra said recently in a meeting with 17 state food ministers, all but one agreed with the Centre’s policy of maintaining a healthy buffer stock for all states rather than meeting the requirements of one.
“Around 36 million tonnes of rice is distributed through the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (revamped National Food Security Act, which is free for all beneficiaries). If all states start demanding extra rice for the public distribution system (PDS) over and above what the Centre gives, it will amount to 72 million tonnes. The foodgrains stock is 56-57 million tonnes,” Chopra said.
He said the main purpose of selling through the open market scheme was to give an indication that the Centre had sufficient stocks.
“This is just the beginning of open market sale, which Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been doing for a long time and gradually the process will pick up,” Chopra said.
FCI Chairman Ashok Meena, who was present at the press conference, said the initial poor response could have been due to restrictions on participation. They include small lot sizes to ensure that only genuine buyers participate and retail prices come down.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Karnataka government on Monday started crediting cash, in lieu of the extra 5 kg of rice, into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme, thus perhaps marking the first large-scale experiment with direct benefit transfers in the PDS.
Facing difficulties in procuring large quantities of rice required to implement the poll promise of the Congress, the state government decided to pay cash at Rs 34 per kg, for the additional 5 kg of rice under the free rice scheme, which is applicable to every member of a household below the poverty line and Antyodaya households. According to the state government, Karnataka has 12.8 million ration cards of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Priority Households.
Congress leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted the government of Karnataka had launched India’s biggest direct cash benefit transfer for the poor, under which 12.8 million families, comprising 42.8 million individuals, would get Rs 170 in their bank accounts in lieu of the rice under the Anna Bhagya scheme.
This will be a transfer of Rs 716 crore every month, he said.
