Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan raised the issue of illegal smuggling of Ration Rice through Kakinada Port.
There are rumors that it is the Business of Former MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy. When not in power, Pawan targeted Dwarampudi’s corruption in the East Godavari region.
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In response, Dwarampudi abused Pawan and his family. He also challenged that he would defeat Pawan if the latter contested from any constituency in East Godavari. Dwarampudi even spent money in Pithapuram to defeat Pawan Kalyan but could not.
The other day, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also announced that the Ration Rice Smuggling will be dealt with by Iron Fist.
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That is a different story but Ration Rice smuggling is for real and needs to be addressed.
The Government supplies Rice to the poor at 1-2 Rupees Per KG. These people buy the rice from the Poor at 6-7 Rupees Per KG and Recycle them and export to African and other countries for Higher Prices.
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For instance, Ration rice in Malaysia is sold at 7 ringgits (Rs 123) per kg.
Purchasing Ration Rice is illegal but the business goes unabated due to the people like Dwarampudi.
Kakinada Port has become an Adda for this illegal smuggling. A massive ecosystem was built around the Port and this Rice Smuggling.
Near 10,000 people are directly dependent on the Port where the major cargo is Illegal Rice Smuggling.
While how the Government will arrest this Smuggling is a different topic but the root cause of this problem lies with the Rice itself.
As per the Government Scheme, 5 KGs of rice at the rate of Rs 1 a KG is given to each person of a BPL family, which is considered as living under poverty line.
The Central Government has doubled the rice entitlement as a COVID Assistance. So, each person would receive 10 KGs.
In FY23, the center’s food subsidy expenses were Rs 2.72 lakh crore.
Even though such huge bill, the rice is not for consumable for Poor and so, they sell-off. Each KG of this rice costs around 14 Rupees to the Governments. The Rice is procured from the farmers and are storied in FCI Godowns. There is a wastage as well in these Godowns.
So why don’t the Governments transfer the equivalent money to the beneficiaries so that they can purchase the Rice of their choice?
The problem is the National Food Security Act (NFSA). This Act brought in 2013 legally entitles up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution.
There is no provision to give the money. So, the quality of the rice has to be improved or the Act has to be amended.
