Fradulent Claims on Foodgrains Allocations

 

The CCP decision to make an additional allocation of 10 kg of wheat or rice to all eligible card holders under the TPDS not at the present central issue price of foodgrains but at the higher minimum support price, far from being a help to control prices as being claimed by the Government, will in effect import price rise into the TPDS itself. It represents, in comparison to the present TPDS central issue prices for APL allocations a steep hike of over 77 per cent hike in the case of rice and 85 per cent in the case of wheat. If this so-called additional allocation is to be distributed to the BPL and Antodaya sections a BPL card holder who gets rice at present at five rupees a kilo will have to pay three times the price and Antodaya card holders will have to pay five times more. In the case of wheat, BPL sections will have to pay double more and four times more in the case of Antodaya.

 

The claims are thus fraudulent. Instead of restoring the 73 per cent cut in the allocations of foodgrains made to the states made over a period of time to APL sections, the Central Government is giving foodgrains at higher cost to the states.

 

The CPI(M) demands that the additional foodgrains be made at the central issue prices being currently used for the targeted public distribution system.