STRENGTHENING OF PDS : PM TO CONVENE ALL PARTY MEETING ON JULY
18
Prime Minister Shri
Atal Bihari Vajpayee has convened an All Party Meeting on July
18, 2003 to discuss ways and means through which the Public Distribution
System (PDS) can be further improved.
Shri Sharad Yadav,
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has
been consistently reviewing distribution of foodgrains under PDS
to ensure its easy availability to the public. During 2002-03
the offtake of foodgrains from the central pool has improved considerably
with the offtake of 198 lakh tonnes of foodgrains from the central
pool against an allocation of 315 lakh tonnes registering the
highest offtake of foodgrains since the introduction of targeted
public distribution system in June, 1997. Offtake by Below Poverty
Line families trebled in 2002-03 to 170 lakh tonnes from 44 lakh
tonnes in 1997-98. Under Antyodaya Anna Yojana the offtake doubled
to 35 lakh tonnes in 2002-03 from the previous year. The offtake
of foodgrains by BPL and AAY families clearly indicates the pro-poor
bias of the PDS.
The Public Distribution
System is operated under the joint responsibility of the State
Government and the Central Government. However, the Ministry has
set up Task Force Teams, which visit States from time to time
to review the programmes and identify shortcomings, which are
conveyed to concerned State Governments for necessary remedial
action.
Continuous efforts
are on to ensure that foodgrains made available through the PDS
are of acceptable quality. The Minister has recently directed
the FCI to ensure that foodgrains stocks more than three years
old are disposed of within two months. This will further improve
the quality of foodgrains being made available through the PDS.
