Chandigarh, September 25
The Congress-led UPA government has done for the SAD-BJP government what it did not do for its own Chief Minister - Capt Amarinder Singh. It has increased the wheat quota under the Antodaya scheme manifold to ensure the government can sustain the populist “aata-daal” (wheat-pulses) scheme, which was universally accepted to have become a white elephant for the state.
Amarinder kept asking for an increase in the wheat quota to Punjab during his stint as the Chief Minister. His last letter on July 11, 2006, evoked a response from agriculture minister Sharad Pawar saying the wheat quota could not be increased under the present circumstances.
Where Amarinder failed, food and supplies minister Adesh Partap Singh seems to have succeeded. The state was receiving around 1,500 tonne of wheat under the Antodaya scheme for people living below the poverty line during the previous Congress rule. This was increased in bits and spurts after Parkash Singh Badal took over the reins of the state.
However in what can be well called a whopping largesse, the centre increased the wheat supply by 20,000 tonne in September this year taking the total quota now to 45,632 tonne. This will now be the monthly quota for the state under the scheme.
The central largesse has bailed out Punjab considering the fact that the issue of subsidies has become a cause of friction even in the state cabinet with finance minister Manpreet Badal expressing his displeasure many a time. The BJP has also clearly expressed view that the Akalis had taken up a responsibility the
state could ill afford by including this promise in their election manifesto.
The turn of events is apparently welcome. food and supplies minister when contacted said, “The central approach is positive on this issue”. The minister seems to have every reason to be happy. Punjab has made an annual saving of Rs 300 crore due to the central largesse.
Punjab was supplying wheat to over 13 lakh households with a maximum of 35 kg per household per month under the scheme, which was launched in August last year. This distribution, through more than 14,000 ration depots and cooperative societies, was being done at the rate of Rs 4 per kg even though the state bought the wheat Rs 12.50 per kg. While the state had to give a subsidy of Rs 8.50 per kg earlier, now it will have to cough up only Rs 2 per kg as it is getting wheat under the Antodaya scheme at a subsidy of Rs 6.50 per kg.
