Nagri residents want Government to nix DBT for food subsidy

A large number of ration card holders from Nagri and activists of Right to Food Campaign, led by noted socio-economist Jean Drèze on Monday marched to Raj Bhawan demanding immediate withdrawal of  ‘Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for Food subsidy’  and restore the old system of providing rice at Re 1 per kg to the poor people at ration shops.

Drèze, who was stopped at Raj Bhawan by the district administration, claimed that the DBT system has completely failed in Nagri, some 20 km from here, and has brought immense hardships to the people and has turned out to be a burden for them.

Remarkably, the DBT system was launched in Nagri block of Ranchi in early October 2017 under which food subsidy is credited to people’s bank account, so that they can use it to buy rice at the ration shop at a price of Rs 32 per kg. Earlier, they used to get rice from ration shops at Re 1 per kg under the old system.

“Out of four installments of DBT money due to them since October 2017 since this system was introduced in Nagri, the respondents, on an average, have received only 2 installments so far. This is an injustice to the poor people of Nagri that they were being denied half of their entitlements of food subsidy under the National Food Security Act,” he added.

Moreover, a large chunk of population, having no other way to find out whether their DBT money has been credited to their accounts or not, they have to go to their banks physically which is sometimes 10-12 km away from their villages,” said Drèze. “Due to these reasons, people of Nagri have been opposing the DBT for food subsidy pilot introduced in their block,” he added.

“In addition to that, those who are unable to collect rice, for no fault of their own, are being issued notices by the Government that their ration cards will be cancelled if they fail to do so,” said the socio-economist. “To prevent their ration cards getting cancelled and feed their families, they were being forced to take loan from the private parties,” he added. 

This new arrangement, according to Dreze, has caused immense hardship for the beneficiaries of public distribution system (PDS) in Nagri, who have been raising their voices repeatedly at the block and district level against the DBT pilot but all in vain.

“Instead of heeding to people’s demand to withdraw the DBT pilot, the State Government claimed the experiment to be a grand success and may be extended all over the State. If this happens, situation will be worsened in the State,” said the socio-economist.

Over 2000 people, mostly women, of different villages of Nagri Block joined the march shouting slogans – ‘DBT Hatao- Ration Bachao’ (Remove DBT - Save Ration) and came walking on their foot up to Raj Bhawan, beyond which they were not allowed to go by the district administration. Later, a public meeting was organised there and a memorandum was handed over to Governor Droupadi Murmu demanding immediate withdrawal of the new system.

“It has completely failed in Nagri, as we are not getting the subsidy money in our bank accounts properly as people are not receiving the subsidy amount in their bank accounts for the last several months. I did not receive it for the last two months while several others have been waiting for it for the last four months,” said Rashmi Tirkey of Nagri. Despite repeated trips made by them to the banks and Pragya Kendra, they often have to return empty handed due to connectivity failures or problems with Aadhaar-based biometric authentication.

“People have to forego their daily wages to collect their DBT subsidy,” she said.

Other organizations like All India Kisan Sabha, Jharkhand Jan Sanskriti Manch, Ekta Parishad, Bagaicha, Jharkhand Nagrik Prayas Manch, National Federation of Indian Women and Jharkhand Mahila Jagriti Hazaribagh also participated for the cause besides, the political parties like JMM, JVM CPM, Congress and CPI (M).