Patna, (Bihar Times): There are about 2.3 crore ‘ghost’
public distribution system (PDS) cards in the country.
This was revealed by a recent study conducted by the
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
The tragedy is that as many as 1.21 crore ‘deserving’
poor have been left out of the food security umbrella.
The existence of such a large number of fake cards
only reveals the state of affairs in the PDS. Not only
that a large number of deserving are not getting
anything.
Of the six states surveyed, the study found Bihar to
be worst off. Almost 90 per cent households in case of
rice and 70 per cent in case of wheat complained of
impurity, insect-infested supply and broken grains.
The study confirms what senior ministers like P
Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar have recently
conceded—that foodgrains are being diverted to the
black market and may even be smuggled into Bangladesh.
Chidambaram, while addressing the National Development
Council meet on Wednesday, warned that PDS “could
become an albatross around our neck and an opportunity
for rent seekers to enrich themselves.” He said about
58% of subsidised grain does not reach the target
group, of which a little over 36% is siphoned off the
supply chain.
Every PDS card-holders get 35kg of wheat and rice. By
that account 966 crore tonnes of foodgrains are
diverted each year.
Uttar Pradesh has issued 1.11 crore more cards than it
should have. Rajasthan has an excess 24 lakh cards and
Gujarat and Haryana have more than 10 lakh ghost cards
each. A ghost card can be used either by an
undeserving beneficiary to buy cheap grains or just
be diverted.