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'Subsidy for rich pared to help the poor'

Shanta Kumar, the Union minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution System or PDS, said that subsidy on essential items for people above the poverty line had been removed to provide benefit to the 330 million people living below the poverty line.

He was speaking to newsmen at the Gagal airport near Dharamsala last evening on his arrival to Himachal Pradesh on a three-day tour. "Why should people get disturbed over a burden of Rs 3 per person per month on the 20 million income tax payers when it helps 330 million people living below the poverty line in the country?" he asked.

''After withdrawing the subsidy on sugar for the country's 20 million people living above the poverty line each person of the family living below the poverty line is getting a benefit of Rs 37 per month'', he said.

He said providing subsidy on sugar and other consumable items through the PDS was for the poor and people living below the poverty line in the country. He said the PDS was targeted towards the poor and this time the Rs 22-billion subsidy on consumer items was enhanced for this section of the society.

The economic cost for the people living above the poverty line, which was 83 per cent earlier, has been increased to 100 per cent.

Shanta Kumar said that during the last ten years, while the support price for wheat increased 158 per cent and that of the rice increased by 110 per cent, the issue price of these items remained the same for this period. This resulted in a burden of subsidy on the government exchequer to the tune of Rs 90 billion.

He said subsidy to people living above poverty line was retrenched, and the support and the issue prices of the essential commodities were rationalised in order to help people living below the poverty line.

In reply to a question, Shanta Kumar defended the role of the Bihar governor V C Pandey in inviting Nitish Kumar to form the government. He said that there was no question of removing the Bihar governor as he had done everything within the purview of the Constitution.

During his stay, Shanta Kumar is scheduled to attend the Hola Mohalla at Palampur and would meet the 14-year-old 17th Karmapa at Sidbari today.

UNI

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