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Riots explode food-plenty myth 9 Oct 2007, 0254 hrs IST , Nirmalya Banerjee , TNN
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KOLKATA:
Thirty years after land reforms and the start of Left rule in Bengal, the ration
riots have exploded the myth of rural utopia. Rural Bengal is not a place where
food is plenty and villagers never go to bed hungry. Rather, it is a place where
rampant corruption and greed have eroded the pillars of the public distribution
system.
Denied their due for
years, villagers have taken the law into their own hands. It is only natural
that the first victim of their wrath have been ration dealers. Often, the dealer
has the biggest house in a village in a sea of poverty. There are other rumours:
cardholders are denied supply while stocks are being sold in the open market,
dealers charge higher than the prescribed price, particularly for kerosene, that
are not displayed on boards showing stocks and quotas of rationed
items.
The anger spilled over
at a time when short supplies led to prices of foodgrains skyrocketing in the
open market. "The price of rice in the open market has soared to Rs 14 a kg,
atta is selling at Rs 15 a kg. It’s really difficult for those who have to
buy from the open market," complain Sushil Ghosh and Uttam Banerjee of
Palasdanga, a village in Bankura’s Sonamukhi. Both are above the poverty
line.
For Shyama Ruidas, who
is still waiting for her antodaya card that is meant for the really
impoverished, it is more difficult. He is from Radhamohnpur in Sonamukhi, which
witnessed the first incident of police firing on September
17.
But Radhamohanpur did not
erupt suddenly. Reports of villagers threatening ration dealers who denied
supplies have been filtering in from places like Khatra in Bankura and Panrui in
Birbhum since June. Now the protest has taken other forms, like demanding
backlogs in supply in kind to compensation in cash. Denials are leading to
looting and arson.
Jagannath
Kolay, secretary of State Modified Rationing Dealers Association, says APL
cardholders first started complaining about non-availability of wheat after
their wheat quota was slashed to 250 gms per adult per week since last April. In
villages, the universal complaint, however, is that wheat had not been supplied
at all for the past 11
months.
Significantly, in many
of the attacks on ration dealers, APL cardholderes complaining against
non-availability of wheat have been accompanied by people holding below the
poverty line cards. BPL cardholders have their own grievances, like denial of
supplies. "I got my BPL card in November last year, but it was last week that I
was given the first supply," says Tarapada Dhibar of Madanpur,
Bankura.
Even those having
cards are not having enough. "In my five BPL cards, I get only 3.75 kgs of rice
a week. I have to buy two kgs of rice every day from the open market," says
Lakhi Charan Pramanik of Radhamohanpur. Even All Bengal Ration Shop Owners
Association president Biswambhar Basu agrees that all poor people have not been
brought under the BPL list, and because of political reasons really poor people
have been given APL cards, yet another instance of
irregularity.
Burdwan district
controller of food and supplies Dipankar Roy points to a peculiar rule, the
result of a Central guideline. More than five BPL cards will not be given to one
family, despite its size. In extended families in villages, often the family
size is twice as much.
Agreeing
that there is an overall shortage of foodgrains, Jagannath Kolay blames the
Centre for wheat shortage and the failure of the state’s procurement
programme for shortage in rice.
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