Govt refuses to clear Rs 1,796 crore atta-dal bill
Wednesday, 14/05/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140514/punjab.htm#6
Chandigarh : The Punjab procurement agencies, which ran the much-touted Atta-Dal Scheme for six years, have been left in the lurch by the cash-strapped state government. The Finance Department has refused to clear the bill of Rs 1,796 crore raised by the four state corporations. Official sources said other than the provision of Rs 350 crore made in the budget for running the scheme in 2013-14, there was no other source from where they could release the money demanded by the corporations.
The state procurement agencies — Punsup, Markfed, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation and Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation — have together spent more than Rs 2,000 crore on the scheme. Most of this money was raised by the corporations on their own by increasing the cash credit limit with several banks.
The government has till date (since the scheme was started six years ago) released just Rs 101 crore, besides releasing two instalments of Rs 100 crore each for buying wheat to these agencies.
The agencies managed to realise another Rs 134 crore through the sale of wheat (at Rs 4 per kg) and dal (at Rs 20 per kg) to the 15.4 lakh beneficiaries.
Officials in the corporations say that since the banks are now demanding their money back which they raised by enhancing their cash credit limit on the government’s own pool of wheat stocks, the latter will have to clear the dues. It is because of the poor availability of finance that the beneficiaries have not got the monthly ration of dal under the scheme since January.
However, even as this issue remains unresolved for now, the government re-launched the new Atta-Dal Scheme in December last year after the UPA Government came up with its Food Security Act, which guarantees wheat to the beneficiaries at Rs 2 per kg.
The Food and Civil Supplies Department, which will now single handedly run the scheme, has now sought a budgetary provision of Rs 400 crore.
While wheat will be distributed to 30 lakh families (as against 15.4 lakh families earlier), with each beneficiary getting six months of his supplies, dal, too, will now be supplied for three months together.
In financial mess
The state procurement agencies — Punsup, Markfed, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation and Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation — have spent over Rs 2,000 crore on the Atta-Dal Scheme
The government has till date (since the scheme was started six years ago) released just Rs 101 crore, besides releasing two instalments of Rs 100 crore each for buying wheat to these agencies
Most of this money was raised by the corporations on their own by increasing the cash credit limit with various banks
