Notwithstanding the claims of the State Government, Odisha tops the BIMARU States with maximum urban households holding a ration card, which is due to an urban BPl household. Odisha is also squatting at 7th slot nationally, where well-off rural households hold ration cards that are due to the BPl families.
This revelation by the report of Group of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Statistics of Prices and Cost of living nails the ration card mess under National Food Security Act (NFSA) that the State currently is bedevilled with.
According to the report, in order to calculate the combined Consumer Price Index of the State and prices of PDS item-wise weights of APl and BPl households, weights were calculated under two approaches - based on type of ration cards possessed and on the published poverty line. The weights were computed on the 68th Mixed Monthly Reference Period (MMRP) of National Sample Survey (NSS) and 61st NSS round of consumer expenditure survey. When the Committee arrived to the fact where weights assigned to BPl under published poverty line falling far short of weights assigned to BPl ration card holders, it concluded that many APl households have availed rice, sugar, wheat and kerosene quota in Odisha that are due to BPl cardholders.
And, in the overall urban milieu, Odisha dubiously leads the pack of BIMARU (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) with a difference of 45 points in sugar and 43 points in rice under the two approaches. In rural Odisha, though it is at the 7th slot, yet it fared poorer overall than neighbouring States of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
But the data with State Food and Civil Supplies Department reveals that numerically the State currently has nearly 49lakh BPl cardholders, including AAY cards, compared to around 5.2 lakh APl cardholders. However, the Committee sees through its innovative method the virtual coup of BPl cards by APl households in the State. This exposes the vulnerability of the poor to hunger in many interior parts in the State and also lends credence to the reports of hunger deaths in KBK region.
A look at the report very clearly illustrates that commodities like rice, sugar and kerosene were the three PDS commodities that faced high diversion. Sugar (detailed in table) was the bitterest, where the difference or say diversion from real beneficiaries in rural and urban Odisha stands at a high of 55 points and 45 points, respectively.
Diversion of wheat is least in urban areas with a difference of 12.2 points, and there is virtually no diversion in rural Odisha. The reason: Wheat is not a preferred consuming commodity in rural Odisha.