‘Emulate Chhattisgarh model of PDS’
Special Correspondent
Bangalore: The new government in Karnataka, to be sworn in on Friday, would do well to emulate the Public Distribution System (PDS) model set up by Chhattisgarh where 80 per cent of the population gets subsidised foodgrains, said Right to Information activist Nikhil Dey.
Speaking at a public hearing on PDS, organised by Civic, the non-governmental organisation here on Thursday, Mr. Dey said that the Chhattisgarh Government had streamlined the ration shops by “de-privatising” them and bringing them back under State control and providing foodgrains at Rs. 3 a kilo to 80 per cent of the population.
The first demand of the people of Karnataka to the new government should be the enforcement of a similar system here, he suggested, which is crucial to food security in times of unbridled price rise.
Issues
Mr. Dey said that food security issues remained unaddressed seven years after the historic Supreme Court judgment on Right to Food. Agriculture was increasingly getting oriented to cash crops in the globalised economy, increasing the threat to food security, he added.
At the same time, the number of people covered under PDS was shrinking rapidly, with the universal system giving way to the targeted system, said Mr. Dey.
While the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act had replaced the Food for Work programme, most poor people would rather opt for foodgrains rather than wages, he said, in the light of escalating food prices.
A.J. Sadashiva, former judge of Karnataka High Court, K.S. Vimala of Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, Geeta Menon of Stree Jagruti Samiti and G.N. Nagaraj of CPI (M), besides officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, participated in the public hearing.
Citizen representatives from various parts of Bangalore aired their grievances on the PDS.