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Time of India
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Opposition senses ‘opportunity' in electoral roll revision, frequently rakes up issue
Patna: During the 2020 , the opposition Grand Alliance (GA) missed forming the govt by a whisker. Five years later, the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission ahead of the polls in the state has come as a blessing in disguise for GA, feel poll analysts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now GA is armed with a prominent issue that is supposedly causing confusion among electors, they said. Cashing in on the 'opportunity', leader of opposition in the state assembly, , along with INDIA bloc allies, is raking up the concerns of voters almost daily. So far, he has held around six press conferences over the issue, indicating the significance of the issue, while the NDA has held none. The opposition is finding it a major opportunity to reach out to a large number of voter, cashing in on the anger gripping them. "First, your name will be deleted from the voter list, and in due course, you will lose benefits from all welfare schemes that you might be getting now, one by one," Tejashwi has repeatedly warned at press conferences. Explaining how the deletion of names of the voter proves disastrous for the poor, RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said on Tuesday: "Deletion of names from the voter list means losing every govt facility." He said the biggest loss the people could face is not getting 5 kg free ration. Of the total population of 10.41 crore, as per the 2011 census, the total number of beneficiaries under the Centre-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Bihar is around 8.71 crore, which comes to 84% of the total population. They will also not be getting houses under PM Awas Yojana, pension and other such facilities. Social scientist B N Prasad said the EC has launched such a big campaign, but the methodology remains unclear. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "It is not clear if the BLOs are visiting door to door to deliver/collect enumeration forms. No BLO has visited my home so far. Also, the voices coming from the grassroots do not appear fair or accurate," Prasad, who works with the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, told the TOI. "This is a theatre of the absurd," said former principal of Patna College, N K Chaudhary, while reacting to the opposition's hullabaloo over the SIR issue. "But EC should have given more time and increased the number of documents required to be submitted with the filled-up enumeration forms," he said. The opposition has found a potent issue—much like in the 2015 Bihar polls, when NDA's lead crumbled after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a review of the reservation policy. RJD chief Lalu Prasad turned it into an 'opportunity', warning voters that the RSS-BJP aimed to dismantle the quota system.
The Print
15-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
India can't fix food security with more grain alone. FCI at 60 needs a nutrition agenda
With the recent equity infusion of Rs 10,157 crore, FCI is expected to play the salient role in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) — certainly until December 2028, and most likely beyond. Both its core objectives — effective price support for farmers and provisioning food grains for Public Distribution System (PDS) and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) — are now firmly entrenched in the political economy of the country. Cut to today, India's annual food grain production stands at 332 MT, and as per Niti Aayog estimates, the last decade saw the most visible reduction in poverty — from 29.17 per cent to 11.28 per cent. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has moved to a swank corporate office in New Delhi, and its network has expanded to include 25 regional offices and 170 district offices. After the enactment of the Food Corporations Act, 1964, C Subramaniam, the food and agriculture minister in Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet, invited noted academician TA Pai to helm the new organisation with an authorised capital of Rs 100 crore and an equity of Rs 4 crore. The headquarters was established in Madras — as Chennai was then called — and the first district office was in Thanjavur. India's annual harvest was at its nadir — at 62 MT. Poverty had touched 44 per cent, according to VM Dandekar and N Rath, and 54 per cent, according to Pranab Bardhan. Milestones and challenges Six decades ago, when it was established, the FCI was at the forefront of India's quest for food self-sufficiency. It received accolades for its intervention in ramping up the procurement of paddy and wheat during the Green Revolution to support an expanded PDS. By the mid-1970s, supply began to outstrip demand. The warehousing and logistics infrastructure could not keep pace with rising production, and rats had a field day at railway stations where grain was stored in the open. Unlike the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which kept pace with technology and insulated its operations from power brokers, the FCI failed on both counts. It was dubbed 'a behemoth that had long outlived its purpose'. Yet reforming it remained a political hot potato, especially during the era of unstable coalitions in the 1990s. The economic liberalisation of 1991 opened up the Indian economy, and many FMCG brands began to see the potential of packaging 'atta' and 'chawal' for the growing middle classes. Four years later, in 1995, WTO protagonists launched a major campaign against the FCI, criticising what they saw as trade-distorting subsidies, even though India's Agreement on Agriculture with the WTO allowed these staples to be placed in the 'Blue Box,' which sanctioned certain forms of government support. Also read: MSP under Shastri began as a crisis response. Now India must ask what role it should play today Decentralised procurement By 1996-97, the procurement monopoly of the 'behemoth' was shared with state governments under the Decentralised Procurement Scheme (DCP). Apart from savings on transit, states also had to take direct responsibility for the quality of procurement and authentication of farmers. Of course, the deficit for either commodity was to be met by the FCI from its central pool (procurement over and above the state's own requirement). Thus for most states in the country, wheat was supplied from Punjab, Haryana and MP. Antyodaya – upliftment of the last (poorest) person During the first NDA regime under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the government identified the poorest 1,00,00,000 families in the Below Poverty Line category and offered to them 35 kg of rice and wheat at a highly subsidised price of Rs 3 per kg of rice and Rs 2 per kg of wheat. It was expanded twice by an additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and August 2004. The general agreement was that while the Antyodaya families would get concessional food, those at BPL would be given food at 50 per cent of the MSP and the APL at 90 per cent. NFSA 2013 and UN SDGs Two years before the UN introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which countries including India are signatories, India notified its own National Food Security Act on 10 September 2013. The Act aimed to cover 75 per cent of the rural population and up to 50 per cent of the urban population for receiving subsidised food grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Together with MGNREGA, it addressed two top concerns — Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty. However, alongside this political commitment, there was a growing campaign highlighting inefficiencies in the FCI's operations. Soon after assuming office in 2014, the NDA government established a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Shanta Kumar to examine all aspects of the functioning of the FCI and the PDS. The committee recommended that the FCI hand over all procurement operations of wheat, paddy, and rice to states with prior experience, such as Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab. It also suggested that the FCI shift its focus to supporting states and regions where farmers were in distress due to prices being significantly below the MSP — such as eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam. The committee also promoted the use of the Negotiable Warehouse Receipt system to enable farmers to receive 80 per cent of the value of their produce at MSP as an advance, and invited private sector participation in warehousing, logistics, and storage — thereby making the system more compatible with a market economy. It called for prioritising millets, pulses, and oilseeds, and for aligning MSP with trade policy to ensure that landed import costs do not fall below MSP. It recommended cash transfers indexed to inflation, and starting in September that year, the central government launched pilot projects for providing food subsidies through cash transfers in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry, and urban areas of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The response, however, was mixed. The 15th Finance Commission, in its 2020 report, suggested that food subsidies be partially offset by increasing the Central Issue Price (CIP) of subsidised food grains. It also noted a decline in the share of cereals in food consumption, especially a reduced preference for wheat and rice. But then came Covid-19. FCI stocks became a blessing, enabling the country to extend free food to its most vulnerable sections to mitigate the distress caused by job losses and reverse migration. Free food grains were distributed from April 2020 to December 2022 under the PMGKAY. The scheme was then extended — first for a year, and then for an additional five years from January 2024. Under PMGKAY, the Centre has tasked the FCI and other state agencies with procuring food and organising its distribution to around 820 million people free of cost until December 2028. Initial estimates of around Rs 12 lakh crore over five years may be exceeded due to new census data and higher MSP announcements in the coming years. Also read: The real White Revolution—Shastri's NDDB built a farmers-first economy that still works The call is political According to Ashok Gulati, Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the problem is not so much with the FCI, but with the policy framework. He questions the logic of providing cereals to over 67 per cent of the population at a time when the focus is on the thali index — cereals plus protein. He has suggestions with regard to both procurement and the PDS. On the procurement side, he suggests that procurement be restricted to the requirements of the PDS, and that MSP should be offered only for crops best suited to their respective agroclimatic zones. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on 17 December 2024, the government acknowledged holding 367 LMT, against the required 210.40 LMT. Taking the Sangrur district of Punjab as an example — where the groundwater level had fallen by more than 25 metres during 2000–2019 — Gulati suggested that MSP in this district be restricted to millets and pulses, thereby cutting down on water, power, and fertiliser subsidies of about Rs 10,000 per acre (to be shared equally by the Centre and the state). Likewise, he suggested converting the 5 lakh ration shops into multi-commodity nutrition hubs and giving each family a food subsidy of around Rs 8,000 per year to spend on a more diversified and nutritious food basket. This would also minimise the gap between PDS offtake and the NSSO data on actual food consumption. Meanwhile, the FCI is at the forefront of bringing about structural change in its procurement operations. The AI-based Automatic Grain Analyser (AGA), which minimises human intervention to ensure greater transparency in the grain procurement process, and the Mixed Indicator Method (MIM), used to determine the age of custom-milled raw rice during its acceptance in central pool procurement, are some of the tools introduced by the FCI. Silo storage, container movement, and tamper-proof, high-security cable seals on railway rakes have resulted in a 96 per cent reduction in transit losses. What is the final prognosis, then? The FCI has the technology, human resources, and financial muscle to implement the policy directives of the government. It has shown its resilience during times of crisis and is willing to take on additional responsibility as and when required. And if the mandate is expanded to make it the preferred procurement agency for the revamped PDS — comprising not just cereals but the entire range of agro commodities — the FCI will be able to take up the gauntlet. This is the third article in a series on Lal Bahadur Shastri and the institutions he helped establish. Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal. Disclosure: The columnist is a trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBS Museum). (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
Hans India
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
BJP chief calls for agitation against Congress govt's failures
Hyderabad: Telangana State BJP President N. Ramchander Rao has urged party workers to gear up for a strong agitation against the anti-people policies of the Congress government, accusing it of failing to fulfill the promises made during the elections. Addressing party workers in Nalgonda and Suryapet on the first day of his two-day tour in the Nalgonda district on Monday, he said the people of Telangana have begun to regret voting the Congress to power, having been misled by its hollow promises that deceived both farmers and students. He asserted that the public is now looking towards the BJP as the only political force capable of establishing a 'golden and truly democratic government' that represents the poor and downtrodden. 'Let us build a Viksit Telangana with a double engine sarkar—with governments at both the state and the Centre. I appeal to the people to give BJP a chance in the next elections,' Rao stated. Speaking on ensuing local body elections, he said that the party will contest in all places independently. During his two-day tour of the Nalgonda and Suryapet districts, Rao asked party workers to prepare for all upcoming elections, including the proposed local body elections. He confirmed that BJP would contest independently at every level, from village panchayats to ZPTC seats. The former MLC criticized the state government on the issue of ration cards and welfare schemes and demanded that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy-led Congress government ensure ration cards for all eligible poor families. He alleged that the distribution was being politically manipulated to benefit only Congress supporters. He criticized the state government for taking credit for the free rice scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which is fully funded by the Centre. Besides, the state government had even removed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photos from ration shops to downplay central contributions. Reiterating his party's stand on the religion-based reservations, he said, on the contentious issue of 42% BC reservations, Ramchander Rao clarified that the BJP supports social justice but opposes religion-based quotas. He said such reservations would harm the backward classes and violate constitutional principles. He noted that the Supreme Court had already struck down similar religion-based quotas in the past. He urged the Backward Classes (BC) community to mobilize and protest against the Congress government's misuse of the reservation policy. Terming the Congress party as a puppet of the Gandhi family, he accused Congress of becoming a 'slave to the Sonia Gandhi family.' And termed Chief Minister Revanth Reddy as a pawn in their hands. 'Just as we fought against the Nizam rule to liberate Telangana, we must now fight to free Telangana from the clutches of the Gandhi family,' Rao declared. Raising the issue of Urea supply to Telangana, the state BJP chief refuted Congress' allegations of urea shortage being caused by the Centre. He stated that the central government had supplied 12 lakh metric tonnes of urea. This, against the state government's request of nine lakh metric tonnes. 'Who is responsible for the black marketing and scarcity? The state government must be held accountable,' he said. Earlier, when the Rao began his two-day tour from Nalgonda, he interacted with farmers, youth, intellectuals, and party workers. He received a warm welcome from BJP workers and local associations en route. At Chowtuppal, senior BJP leader G. Manohar Reddy described Rao as a 'silent missile' who would expose and defeat the deceitful governance of both the Congress and BRS. Before addressing a massive party workers' gathering in Nalgonda town, Rao visited the Venkateshwara Temple and paid tribute by garlanding the statue of Gundagoni Maisamma Goud, a martyr of Naxalite violence. In Suryapet, Rao inaugurated the district BJP office and hoisted the party flag, marking the beginning of a new phase of grassroots mobilization in the region. Senior party leaders District BJP President Nagam Varshat Reddy, Anji Reddy – MLC, former MP Burra Narsaiah Goud, former MLA Shanampudi Saidireddy, State Vice President Gangidi Manohar Reddy, State General Secretary Kasam Venkateshwarlu attended the Nalgonda meeting with large participation, especially by women party workers. Rao concluded the first day of his tour with a night halt in his native village Nallabandagudem, located in the Kodad Assembly constituency. He will resume his campaign on Tuesday with visits to local temples and continued interaction with the public.
Mint
19-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Wheat procurement surges, giving govt breathing room on food grain aid
New Delhi: The Centre is confident of maintaining wheat-rice allocations under its Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) this year, buoyed by strong wheat procurement — a politically sensitive development ahead of key state elections, according to two officials familiar with the matter. Under PM-GKAY, 813.5 million beneficiaries receive 5 kg of free food grains each month—currently split as 2 kg wheat and 3 kg rice—translating to an annual wheat requirement of around 19.5 million tonnes (mt). Wheat procurement in the 2025–26 Rabi marketing season (April–June) has already crossed 30 mt, nearing the government's target of 33.37 mt, according to data from the Food Corp. of India (FCI) data. 'We have enough stock to meet the requirement, and it will continue through the year," said one of the officials cited earlier, adding that adequate stocks would also allow for market interventions if prices rise. Read this | Import duty was slashed for edible oils, but what happened to retail prices? As of 31 May, wheat stocks in the central pool stood at 37.99 million tonnes, comfortably above the buffer requirement of 27.58 million tonnes set for 1 July, according to official data. The timing is crucial as assembly elections approach in Bihar this November, while legislative polls in West Bengal are due in March 2026, with subsidized food aid remaining a politically potent issue in both states. The robust procurement comes after two years of shortfalls that forced the Centre to slash wheat allocations and replace them with rice—only restoring the original ratio in September 2024. In May 2022, wheat quotas under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) were cut for 10 major states—Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These states collectively account for nearly 67% or 551 million of the 813 million poorest beneficiaries covered under NFSA. At that time, all beneficiaries received only rice for their 5 kg monthly entitlement. This year's rebound is driven by improved production prospects. The government expects wheat output to rise 2% to a record 115.4 million tonnes (mt) in the 2024-25 Rabi season, mainly on account of higher acreage. According to official data, procurement stood at 26.6 mt in 2024-25 and 26.2 mt in 2023-24, far above the sharp drop to 18.8 mt in 2022-23. The highest ever procurement remains 43.3 mt in 2021-22. Read this | Changes in western disturbances may adversely affect food security, crop productivity Much of this season's surge has come from Punjab (11.92 mt), Haryana (7.14 mt) and Madhya Pradesh (7.77 mt), where state governments offered additional bonuses over the Centre's minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,425 per quintal. Madhya Pradesh announced a ₹175-per-quintal bonus, while Rajasthan, which procured 2.09 mt, offered ₹150. Procurement from Uttar Pradesh, India's largest wheat producer, has reached 1.02 mt so far, against an initial estimate of 3 mt. States like Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat saw minor participation. Procurement remained nil in Maharashtra, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir. Arrivals are still being monitored, particularly in eastern states where procurement is typically backloaded, the second official said, adding that final numbers could rise in the coming weeks. Price stability in focus The procurement uptick also gives the government a buffer to contain price pressures, which remain a concern amid rising mandi prices in some regions. Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation fell to a 14-month low of 0.39% in May, but wheat prices have shown modest firming. As of 18 June, the average retail price of wheat stood at ₹31.32 per kg, up 1.2% from a year earlier. Wheat flour (atta) prices rose 1.5% year-on-year to ₹36.65 per kg. Wholesale wheat prices rose 2.7% year-on-year to ₹28.20 per kg. Also read | India tells WTO it won't lift wheat export ban 'Wholesale and retail wheat prices have remained firm in some states due to high mandi prices, but with strong procurement, market prices should ease soon," the second official added.
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Seers' teaching can prevent Kairana-like communal incidents: Yogi
1 2 3 Lucknow: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that saints have always guided society towards unity and harmony — a path that could have prevented Kairana and Kandhla-like communal incidents in Uttar Pradesh. He was addressing a congregation of seers on the death anniversary of Sant Swami Gyan Bhikshuk Das Ji Maharaj in Muzaffarnagar. The CM said no other faith could boast of a 5,000-year-old legacy other than Sanatan Dharma and called seers the true custodians of a timeless heritage. He said PM Narendra Modi has fulfilled the vision of seers by ensuring equal rights for all citizens. "The seers have shown us a path of unity, a way to unite people. It's a path which gives us a guarantee of security, which highlights the way of our development and also inspires us to fight in challenging situations. Swami Gyan Bhikshuk Das Ji Maharaj was a divine soul who dedicated his life to spreading these teachings of Satguru Ravidas Ji Maharaj," the CM said. Yogi said when India was under medieval rule, Satguru Ravidas Ji Maharaj emerged in Sear Govardhan, Kashi, as a beacon of hope. He worked to awaken society against superstition and other social evils, while focusing on the dignity of labour and inner purity. His words 'Man changa to kathauti mein Ganga' continue to inspire people towards spiritual purity and moral clarity. His guru, Sant Ramanand, also spread the message of equality," the CM said. Yogi said PM Modi has fulfilled Ravidas' vision of equality and dignity through a scheme like Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, under which 81 crore people have received free foodgrain since Covid till now. "Before 2014, roads to Sant Ravidas' birthplace Sear Govardhan were single-lane. We made them four-lane roads. A grand ashram, a magnificent statue, and an Anna Kshetra have been built. Land was acquired for a park and statue in the name of Sant Ravidas," the CM said. He described Shuktirtha as a sacred and mythological site, where Shukdev Ji narrated the first Shrimad Bhagavat to King Parikshit 5,000 years ago. Paying tribute to Swami Bhikshukdas Ji Maharaj and Sant Samandas Ji Maharaj, the CM announced that a ghat, wide roads, beautification, parking, and a satsang hall would be developed around the Samandas Ashram to improve facilities for devotees. "When saintly guidance meets a visionary govt, change is inevitable. It is intent that matters," he said, criticising previous govts for failing to honour someone like BR Ambedkar adequately. "It was PM Modi who first commemorated Ambedkar through the establishment of Panchteerths and declared 26 Nov as the Constitution Day. No govt did this between 1949 and 2015," he said.
