Ensure Universal PDS

Date: 
Friday, May 29, 2015

 
Press Statement
 
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
 
The Polit Bureau strongly condemns the deliberate negligence of the Modi Government towards implementing and improving the Food Security Act and its expansion to ensure food security as well as nourishment to all Indians. This is all the more urgent in the light of the 2015 FAO report on the State of Food Insecurity. Although the methods used by FAO are a gross underestimation of the extent of malnourishment and hunger, even this report is a damning indictment of the claims made both under the UPA and now under the Modi Government as today India has the largest numbers of undernourished people in the world.
 
In the last year under the Modi Government (2014-2015 and estimates for 2016) the report estimates that the total number of people undernourished in India has gone up from 189.9 million (2012) to 194.6 million.
 
As a proportion of the population, the decline is significantly lower in the last year just 0.4 percentage points as compared to five percentage points between 2010-2012. In other words, the situation has worsened under the Modi Government.
 
The Modi Government should stop its false claims of being pro-poor and take immediate action to ensure universal coverage of the public distribution system with an expanded list of cheap rations including a minimum of 35 kg of foodgrains per family at a maximum of two rupees per kilo.