Riots explode food-plenty myth-Kolkata-Cities-The Times of India
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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.