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Down the drain

Down the drain Amid starvation deaths, overflowing granaries and a persistent Supreme Court chasing the government to explain these paradoxes, the recent Union cabinet clearance to the Rs 10,000-crore food for work programme should on face value be good news. But given the fact that the government wants to use the scheme to empty its overflowing Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns before the kharif harvest, the much-needed local food security might not be achieved.

The Union cabinet on September 18, 2001, approved this programme called Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), which the prime minister had promised during his Independence Day speech. The scheme aims to provide wage/employment to the rural poor while offering food security. Welcoming the scheme, eminent agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan says that such scheme will definitely help the ultra poor, but implementation at the bureaucratic level will not work. "The scheme must be managed at village level through the gram panchayat ,' he says. According to the government declaration local bodies like Gram and Zilla Panchayats will implement the programme.

However, says Swaminathan, identification of people below poverty line is necessary for the success of such schemes. No state has been able to identify its poor population, despite repeated orders from the apex court till now. Apprehending that the wage for food programme may not assure local food security, he says, "Community grain banks should be instituted and managed by the village community.' Recently, the Union government talked about community grain banks as the mode for securing food security. But the SGRY has no mention about it.

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