The ration revolt - How Dishonest Dealers Shortchange The Cardholders

Sunil Banik
The Statesman, 8 December

The ration shops in several towns and villages of West Bengal have been the target of public fury since the second week of September. It persisted even during the festive season in October. The public rage followed the prolonged failure of the ration shops to comply with the obligations of the state government under the public distribution system of essential commodities.

The PDS plays an important role in governance. It distributes rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene at subsidised prices, compared to the rising market rates. The state's ration shops, about 20,372 in number, have persistently failed to provide weekly supplies of such items in the specified quality and quantity to the ration card holders.

Those who come under such categories as Above Poverty Line, Below Poverty Line, Antyoday and Annapura Yojana are dependant on the rationing system. Ration dealers, appointed by the state's food department, get their supplies from the Food Corporation of India. The local panchayats or civic bodies have been entrusted with the task of ensuring proper distribution. The block-level food inspectors, appointed by the food department, are supposed to oversee the process.

No transparency

Despite such checks, the people, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas, have not been getting rations regularly and properly. They are often denied ration for months on the plea of lack of supply. The dealers in most cases do not notify, as per rule, the supply position on their shop notice boards. This is intended to ensure transparency, but the rule is followed in the breach. Nevertheless, the food inspectors or panchayat monitoring committees have often certified the deal, to the effect that they are functioning properly.

On10 October 2007, the FCI declared that there was no shortfall in the PDS supply of wheat and rice and the state had a stock of 1.70 lakh tons of rice and 2.33 lakh tons of wheat, enough for two months. The chairman and managing director stated that the crisis was embedded in corruption on the part of the dealers. He also mentioned intelligence reports that PDS commodities were being smuggled out to Bangladesh.

The smuggling has compounded the corruption of dealers in collusion with the elected and paid officials of the panchayats and the food directorate. The bulk of the items, earmarked for the ration shops, is being sold at a higher price in the open market. Panchayat functionaries and ruling party leaders are also involved. The allotted FCI commodities sent by trucks are routinely diverted to the distributors’ godowns, there to be adulterated with inferior rice and wheat, brought from the rice or flour mills. And these are then packed in reduced quantities and sent to the ration shops. The dishonest dealers in turn shortchange the card holders. While the commodities are sold in the open market at a premium, cardholders are told that the ration shops are not getting their supplies from the FCI.

The diversion of kerosene follows a similar procedure. The tanker, carrying better quality kerosene, is replaced with another tanker with adulterated kerosene and of much reduced quantity and then sent to the dealers’ retail outlets.

The inspectors hardly take any step to detect and destroy the ghost and irregular ration cards. Such cards are largely retained by the dealers who regularly draw government-subsidised ration items against them, only to sell the commodities in the open market. This is done in cahoots with dishonest local officials and vested ruling party collaborators. In this way the dealers do business, running into crores. They gradually become rich and powerful enough to intimidate the poor and economically weak card-holders. Violent mobs have raided the houses of dealers, many of them palatial. Some even have swimming pools. The owners are members of the ruling party.

Even so, the secretary of the Ration Dealers Association, has informed the government that dealers would surrender their permits if the commission rates are not raised and if they were not given adequate security. They admitted that many dealers had to sell “APL wheat”' in the open market to compensate for the losses incurred under the defective rationing system.

The government has assured the dealers’ association that their grievances would be looked into. The public rage continued nonetheless. The licences of some top functionaries of the association, who attended the food department meetings on their grievances, have been cancelled or suspended because of malpractices.

The district magistrates and the block development officers have palpably failed to check corruption. A DM, after taking charge of a backward districts in 2006, had started a probe into the local rationing system. The official stumbled on to a cesspool of corruption. The inquiry was called off under political pressure.

The extent of the corruption was exposed on 16 September when a spontaneous riot broke out in Bankura’s Sonamukhi area. The ration revolt was led by some disillusioned ruling party supporters. Bankura witnessed a similar revolt in 2004. This time it spread to large parts of South Bengal. The enforcement branch of the state police, which probed the Sonamukhi revolt, found that the allegations against the dealers and their collusion with the local officials were correct. But the scam was kept under wraps.

A ‘farce’

The riots spread and the Chief Minister’s assurance that action would be taken against the guilty had no impact. On the contrary, it became a subject of inter party kerfuffle as a Forward Bloc minister heads the food department. The FB holds the CPI-M responsible for selecting corrupt distributors and contractors for which the PDS had been reduced to a “farce”.

By resorting to this this blame game, the food minister cannot absolve himself of his ministerial responsibility. In fact, his department appoints the food inspectors who have been found to be in league with the rogue dealers, and have played a major role in the ration scam. He has woken up to the crisis only after the Chief Minister censored his department for the unrest.

Soon after the CM’s remarks, some corrupt food department officials were arrested, about 198 dishonest dealers suspended, and the licences of 90 dealers cancelled. Only 10 out of 719 distributors were suspended on charges of corruption. He has now decided to restructure the shop-level monitoring committees and appoint 2000 new food inspectors. Had these steps been taken by the food minister, he may not have regretted the fact that under his stewardship, the rationing system had been rendered defucnt and reduced to what he calls is a “farce”.

The writer is former Secretary-General, Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.