To secure electoral gains, Raman keeps close watch on food security scheme
As billboards across Chhattisgarh hardsell the state government’s Rs 771-crore food security scheme envisaging distribution of rice at Rs 3 per kg to 34 lakh poor households, chief minister Ram Singh has embarked on an equally ambitious mission: M...
By Bharti Jain, TNN |
RAIPUR: AS billboards across Chhattisgarh hardsell the state government���s Rs 771-crore food security scheme envisaging distribution of rice at Rs 3 per kg to 34 lakh poor households, chief minister Ram Singh has embarked on an equally ambitious mission: Monitoring its execution right down to the level of the PDS outlet.
It���s a tech-savvy monitoring plan, involving not only SMS and internet alerts on availability and supply positions to the beneficiary families and panchayat members of the targeted villages, but also retro-fitting of rice-transporting trucks with GPS devices to track their journey from the godowns to the PDS outlets.
Thrown in are a toll-free number���3633���to register complaints regarding distribution of the subsidised rice and, wherever mobile penetration is low, putting up bulletins on the supply position on walls outside the panchayat office.
And if all this is not enough, chief minister himself plans to randomly heli-hop to PDS outlets in the interior villages for first-hand surveillance.
The elaborate monitoring exercise is on account of fears in the ruling dispensation that even a small failure to deliver on the scheme could be magnified by the Opposition as a violation of the poll-eve promise and a proof of the Raman Singh government���s lack of commitment to the poor.
���The massive budgetary provision for the scheme is our way of dealing with malnutrition and anaemia prevalent among the state���s children and expectant mothers... and if the rice does not reach them on time and in the promised quantities, our mission will remain unfulfilled,��� says Mr Singh.
Ever since the Rs 771-crore allocation for the ambitious food security scheme was announced in the Chhattisgarh budget on February 23, the Congress has been restless over its likely electoral impact. The party has tried to play down the largesse by offering to supply rice at an even lower rate of Rs 2-per-kg, but was silenced when a buoyant
BJP questioned its inability to do the same in states ruled by it.
With well over eight months to go for assembly elections, the Raman Singh government is in no mood to risk any negative publicity on the delivery mechanism, which it feels would dim its populist aura.
Hence, the elaborate, centralised monitoring system linking all the PDS outlets online. As soon as a truck leaves the godown with its load of rice, the vehicle number is SMSed to the sarpanch/elders of the village to which it is headed, along with the quantity of rice being transported.
Mr Singh would also actively involve himself in the monitoring mechanism. ���I will pay random visits to PDS outlets in villages and check out the delivery systems...where complaints are received against a specific individual or official, I will take action on the spot, be it suspension or even imprisonment,��� he warned.
It���s a tech-savvy monitoring plan, involving not only SMS and internet alerts on availability and supply positions to the beneficiary families and panchayat members of the targeted villages, but also retro-fitting of rice-transporting trucks with GPS devices to track their journey from the godowns to the PDS outlets.
Thrown in are a toll-free number���3633���to register complaints regarding distribution of the subsidised rice and, wherever mobile penetration is low, putting up bulletins on the supply position on walls outside the panchayat office.
And if all this is not enough, chief minister himself plans to randomly heli-hop to PDS outlets in the interior villages for first-hand surveillance.
The elaborate monitoring exercise is on account of fears in the ruling dispensation that even a small failure to deliver on the scheme could be magnified by the Opposition as a violation of the poll-eve promise and a proof of the Raman Singh government���s lack of commitment to the poor.
���The massive budgetary provision for the scheme is our way of dealing with malnutrition and anaemia prevalent among the state���s children and expectant mothers... and if the rice does not reach them on time and in the promised quantities, our mission will remain unfulfilled,��� says Mr Singh.
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Ever since the Rs 771-crore allocation for the ambitious food security scheme was announced in the Chhattisgarh budget on February 23, the Congress has been restless over its likely electoral impact. The party has tried to play down the largesse by offering to supply rice at an even lower rate of Rs 2-per-kg, but was silenced when a buoyant
BJP questioned its inability to do the same in states ruled by it.
With well over eight months to go for assembly elections, the Raman Singh government is in no mood to risk any negative publicity on the delivery mechanism, which it feels would dim its populist aura.
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Already, the Congress has been running a campaign that the scheme, by more or less meeting the monthly food requirements of a poor household, has turned the peasants into freeloaders, creating an artificial scarcity of agricultural workers. Hence, the elaborate, centralised monitoring system linking all the PDS outlets online. As soon as a truck leaves the godown with its load of rice, the vehicle number is SMSed to the sarpanch/elders of the village to which it is headed, along with the quantity of rice being transported.
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Some of the trucks have even been fitted with GPS devices which will help track if the vehicle is deliberately diverted from the intended route. Mr Singh would also actively involve himself in the monitoring mechanism. ���I will pay random visits to PDS outlets in villages and check out the delivery systems...where complaints are received against a specific individual or official, I will take action on the spot, be it suspension or even imprisonment,��� he warned.
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