Now cooking: battle for rice

Calcutta, June 3.TT: The Mamata Banerjee government is gearing to fight the Centre afresh for an additional allotment of subsidised rice to keep a pet project afloat.

A shortage of cheap grain has hit the state’s Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme for about 20 lakh “needy” people who don’t figure on the below-poverty-line (BPL) list, with supplies having been stopped in the Darjeeling hills since April.

Although the Centre had made it clear on March 12 that it would not provide additional rice under the BPL category, the state has sent a fresh demand for 5.59 lakh tonnes.

“We need the additional allotment urgently,” state food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said. “If the Centre refuses again, we won’t be able to supply cheap rice to these 20 lakh needy people in Jungle Mahal, Aila-affected areas, the closed tea gardens and the Darjeeling hills.”

The Centre allots rice for the BPL category at a subsidised Rs 6.25 a kg, which the state subsidises further and supplies at Rs 2 a kg to BPL card-holders. But the state has also been providing rice at the same rate to another 20 lakh people who it believes deserve to be on the BPL list.

The Centre has earmarked 9.56 lakh tonnes of BPL rice for Bengal for the financial year 2012-13. In March, when the state demanded an additional 7 lakh tonnes at the subsidised rate, the Centre turned it down.

However, Mamata took the matter up again at her April 10 meeting with the Planning Commission deputy chairperson in Delhi, sources said.

“The chief minister was told this needed the Centre’s clearance as it involved an additional financial outlay,” a source said.

State officials said that since April, the government had been forced to stop the supply of cheap rice to needy people in the Darjeeling hills who are not on the BPL list.

“If the Centre refuses a fresh allotment, the scheme is likely to be hit in other areas such as Jungle Mahal and the Aila-affected zone. That’s why the state government is so desperate,” an official said.

“I have tried my best to get the additional rice allotment but all attempts have failed,” food minister Mallick said. “Now I have urged the chief minister to take up the matter again. We’ll wait for the Centre’s reply. If the demand is rejected, we will fight against the decision.”

The state is already pressuring the Centre for a three-year moratorium on interest payments and a bigger rollback of petrol prices. It has also objected to the proposed national counter terrorism centre.

This apart, Mamata has forced the Centre to defer the Teesta treaty with Bangladesh on the ground that it would hurt Bengal’s interests.