Mamata Banerjee faces Opposition heat over subsidised food scheme in West Bengal

By Madhuparna Das
KOLKATA: The West Bengal government’s decision to provide subsidised food grains in the state is being criticised by opposition parties as chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s ploy to please the electorate before the 2016 Assembly polls.

The Banerjee government, which has been reeling under financial crisis, has announced subsidised food grains for the state’s over 90 million people, including those in the APL category. According to officials in the state’s food department, the subsidy scheme is expected to cost the government Rs 3,000 crore.

In 2011, the same government had refused to implement the ‘right to food’ scheme brought by UPA II for both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act.

The announcement comes at a time when the state government is already selling subsidised rice (at Rs 2/kg) in the Left Wing extremism (LWE) affected blocks in the state — 31 blocks in Junglemahal, 15 blocks in Sundarban, 22 sick tea gardens in North Bengal, to 82 tribal communities in North Bengal, and to 3,400 unwilling farmers in Singur and Darjeeling district.



The existing food subsidy scheme costs the state exchequer Rs 1,060 crore. On July 21, the government announced it will give rice and wheat at Rs 3/kg in the state. According to state food and PDS minister Jyotipriya Mallick, the government will supply subsidised food grains to 61 million people, or roughly 67% of the state’s population.

This apart, the state food department is working on a subsidised package for the rest of the population, including the APL category.

“In Bengal, we have a population of 9.22 crore. We have already covered 6.1 crore people. Didi has, however, instructed us to bring everybody, including the APL, under the scheme. So we have invited applications from the APL people who would want to avail of subsidised food,” Mallick told ET.