Reducing PDS to a cash cow : Mobile sale the answer
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 29, 2012 -

If only intentions were the yardstick for governance, then Manipur would have been the land of honey and milk.

Consumers Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister M Oken seems intent on sending out the right signal but there is many a slip between the heart and head or between intention and actually getting down to the business of delivering.

The plan to go in for mobile sale of rice will certainly go some distance in helping the public get rice at the Government approved price, but can this be the answer ?

It certainly sounds appealing but in one swift act the young Minister has demonstrated that there is not much the Government can do to penalise the elements who have reduced the concept of the Public Distribution System to a mechanism to line the pockets of some select individual.

More like a case of treating the symptoms rather than going in for a surgical removal of the tumour which has assumed cancerous proportions and this is disappointing. Or more appropriately it is something like throwing in the towel, without even attempting to cleanse the system.

That there is a much more pronounced system than the Public Distribution System to siphon off the highly subsidised goods that come under the PDS is a given and it is this which M Oken should ideally be concentrating upon. The priority should be very clear.

Sanitising the system is what is called for, if PDS items are to reach the public, at the rates approved by the Government. The task at hand will be both tough and easy as well.

A cursory look around should be more than enough indications to zero in on who has been milking the cash cow that the PDS has become. For this one does not need to approach the Swiss Bank or delve into any highly confidential report.

For starters look at the palatial residences built by those who are directly responsible for depositing and lifting the PDS items.

Refusing to act upon the all too clear indications and going in for temporary arrangements would amount to playing to the gallery to earn some brownie points.

It should be apparent to all, particularly to the CAF and PD Minister that the Price Monitoring Committee comes to the consciousness of the people and the Government only when there is scarcity, such as during times of economic blockades, but even here there is nothing to suggest that efforts have been made to make it effectively functional.

The more than 100 days of economic blockade last year is an apt example. Ironic it is, but a system which has been put in place to ensure food security to the vast number of under privileged people has been morphed into a device to make easy money for the people who happen to be at the 'right place.' The task before the young Minister should be clear.

Going in for mobile sale of rice to ensure that it reaches the people at the Government approved rate can only serve a temporary purpose.

In as much as the intention of the Minister is to help the people tide over the difficult times, June, July and August being the most trying months in a year, more stress should be laid on making examples out of the elements who have been laughing all their way to the bank, while bleeding the people dry.

Big fishes will surely be involved in the 'system' that has been put in place and it remains to be seen whether M Oken will have the political willingness and the courage to crack the whip to rein in the big players. The test starts now.