Don’t tinker with the supply side of rice, wheat

By O.J.George

Kerala is reverberating with arguments and counter-arguments about lifting of rice and wheat from the Central pool and allegedly mismanaging the quota.

On the one hand there has been the charge that Kerala failed to lift the allotted quantities. Now,on the other, the allegation is that rice and wheat are being sold outside the ration outlets.

The charges and counter-charges are traded by Union Minister K.V.Thomas and State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac. It seems CPI’s Food Minister C.Divakaran is saved from climaxing arguments as Thomas Isaac has stepped in.

The common man wants the public distribution system filled with the grain and atta so that there won’t be artificial price hikes.

Demand and supply side economics cries for plenty of availability so that prices will not go up owing to scarcity as well as consequential speculative practices.

Conducive circumstances should be created under which Kerala, a scarcity state as far as the grain are concerned, or for that matter vegetables and much of other edible items, should not be smarting under non-availability.

Macro statistics considered, Kerala is better than most of the other states in distributing ration items. We don’t directly witness the hanky panky in the practices elsewhere. That is why we make a hue and cry about trade-offs, black marketeering etc of ration items.

There was a report earlier that ration rice and wheat supplied from the Food Corportion of India godowns are taken away to private parties in the north-eastern states handsdown.

Now there may be some reprieve. In many other states, underhand dealings are thriving. That means the hullabaloo created within the state should not be allowed to result in depletion of the state with regard to the supplies.

Ensure supplies by any means, the priceline can be held to a considerable extent.

Whether it is K.V.Thomas or Thomas Isaac, the people’s interests should not be traded for narrow gains.