UP spent Rs 300 cr per month to deliver free ration ahead of state polls

The distribution of soybean oil, salt and chana, was in addition to the free foodgrains distributed through PDS under the Centre's NFSA and also the PMGKAY

Over 1.4 million tonnes of wheat, 0.95 million tonnes of rice, 0.10 million tonnes of chana (gram), 10.19 crore litres of soybean oil and 0.10 million tonnes of salt was the free ration that the Yogi Adityanath government distributed in UP between December 2021 to February 2022 as part the Covid relief package just ahead of the state polls, officials said.

Several political commentators and observers have attributed the free ration distribution as being one of the factors that turned the voters towards the ruling dispensation in the state elections.

The free distribution done to almost 146 million beneficiaries across the state is expected to cost the exchequer around Rs 300 crore per month, officials said.

Sources said that this distribution of soybean oil, salt and chana, was in addition to the free foodgrains distributed through PDS under the Centre’s National Food Security Act (NFSA) and also the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY).

The ration was distributed twice a month, once when just grains were sold and for a second time when the remaining items were distributed.

Official data shows that in the month of December 2021, maximum distribution was done in Ambedkar Nagar district of UP to among 389,000 ration card holders, while in January Mirzapur topped the list with free ration for 440,000 card holders. Ambedkar Nagar again topped the list of maximum free ration distribution in February with 390,000 ration card holders benefitting from the same.

Sources said both Ambedkar Nagar and Mirzapur are dominated by people from the less privileged caste.

That apart, state government officials said that before the free ration scheme, between April 2018 and February 2022, the state added 1.25 crore new beneficiaries to the PDS while the names of around 9.5 lakh people were deleted for various reasons.

Apart from the special free ration scheme started before the elections, the UP government, along with the Centre, has been distributing wheat and rice under PDS and also under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana since March 2020.

Officials said there was little evidence of mass scale leakages in the distribution although some beneficiaries complained that they got less than their entitled quota of wheat and rice.

“An evaluation of PDS by NCAER (2014), before the implementation of National Food Security Act in UP, had shown that 33 percent of food grains meant for below poverty line and 35 per cent for above poverty line families had leaked. There is no recent evaluation of leakage but the tenor of debate in poll-bound UP shows that leakages may have come down,” former food secretary Siraj Hussain and Rural Development Secretary Jugal Mohapatra wrote in recent piece in news website ‘The Print”

Hussain who has been a former IAS officer of the UP cadre further wrote that in 2019-20 the normal allocation of rice and wheat to UP in 2019-20 was 37.80 lakh tonnes and 55.48 lakh tonnes, respectively.

“The state government lifted 96 per cent of the allocated quantity,” Hussain wrote in the piece.

The article further states that in 2020-21, UP was allotted 3.609 million tonnes of rice and 21.93 lakh tonnes of wheat under PMGKAY.

Thus, in addition to normal NFSA allocation of 8.96 million tonnes, an additional allocation of 5.8 million tonnes was made in 2020-21. Unlike normal allocation under NFSA, the allocation under PMGKAY was to be distributed free to ration card holders.

 

In 2021-22, under PMGKAY, UP received an allocation of 3.238 million tonnes of rice and 4.857 tonnes of wheat.

Thus the total additional allocation is 8.095 million tonnes which is only slightly less than the normal allocation of 8.959 million tonnes. It means that ration card holders received almost double the quantity they would have received if these additional allocations under PMGKAY were not made.

“This is being projected as a great success of the Narendra Modi government in preventing deaths due to starvation during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the former officers wrote in the piece.