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More wheat for Punjab
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Atta-dal bail-out Allocation of wheat to 10,000 tonnes from 1,306 per tonne per month for the above poverty line (APL) families will boost the Atta Dal scheme.

Chandigarh, February 5
Struggling to meet its fiscal responsibilities on the development front, the Badal government has got a big relief on the Atta-dal scheme, as the Union government has raised Punjab’s quota of allocation of wheat to 10,000 tonnes from 1,306 per tonne per month for the above poverty line (APL) families.

Earlier, Punjab was getting 1,306 tonnes of wheat per month at the rate of Rs 6.59 per kg for distribution among APL ration card holders through the public distribution system (PDS) from the central pool. Now, it will get 10,000 tonnes per month of wheat at the rate of Rs 6.59 per kg for the APL category. That stock of 10,000 tonnes, on which otherwise the state government had to spent Rs 12 per kg, will be available at Rs 6.59 per kg, for distribution among beneficiaries identified under the subsidised atta-dal scheme.

In all, Punjab will get now 26,378 tonnes of wheat per month at subsidised price from the central pool to distribution among various categories of beneficiaries. Under the Antyodhya Anna Yojna (AYY), which is meant for poorest of the poor, it will get 6,280 tonnes of wheat at a rate of Rs 2 per kg and for below poverty line (BPL) families, it will get 10,098 tonnes of wheat at the rate of Rs 4.54 per kg from the central pool for PDS, besides 10,000 tonnes for the APL families.

With the enhanced quota, there will be financial benefit to the tune of Rs 60 crore per annum to the state government on the atta-dal scheme, which actually is wheat-dal scheme, as instead of atta, the government gives wheat to beneficiaries at a subsidised price of Rs 4 per kg.

Punjab food and supplies minister Adesh Partap Singh had been putting pressure on the Union government on this issue for the past many months.

Under the atta-dal scheme, Punjab distributes 49,000 tonnes of wheat and 4,900 tonnes of pulses per month. It cost Rs 31.25 crore per month to the state government. There are 13.57 lakh beneficiaries who are covered under this scheme. Whereas wheat is provided to beneficiaries at Rs 4 per kg, pulses are provided at Rs 20 per kg. Each ration card holder gets 35 kg of wheat and 2 kg of pulses. The number of families which are covered under the BPL and AAY schemes in Punjab are 4.68 lakh.

Sources said Punjab had surrendered its quota of rice in lieu of wheat. There were no takers of rice under the PDS system. Even three years ago, when the price of wheat that is distributed through the PDS was almost on a par with market price, no one from APL families used to lift their share of ration from depots.

That is why allocation of wheat for the APL families to Punjab from the central pool had come down to just 15,000 tonnes about 1,00,000 tonne per annum in recent years. However, as the wheat price in the market has gone up and demand to lift stock from rations depots increased, Adesh Partap Singh wrote to the Union government to restore its previous quota of allocation.