Mismatch in Telangana, Centre’s BPL data

Hyderabad: There is a big mismatch in the Centre and TS government’s figures regarding the number of below poverty line families in the state. This is because the income limit was raised by the TS government for issuing new food security cards (ration cards) for the BPL families.

The state government had raised the annual income limit to Rs 1.5 lakh in rural areas and Rs 2 lakh in urban areas for a family to be eligible for the ration cards in 2014. Earlier, the income limit was Rs 60,000 in rural areas and Rs 75,000 in urban areas.

According to the Centre’s data, there are 1.91 crore BPL families in the state. However, the TS data claims there are 2.86 crore BPL families, showing a variation of nearly 95 lakh. As a result, the ration quota given by Centre to TS fails to meet the demand.

The Centre has been allotting rice quota to TS based on its data of 1.91 crore BPL families. Moreover, the Centre has been supplying only 5 kg of rice per head in a household, while TS is giving 6 kg of rice per head.

The TS government is providing 1.80 lakh metric tonnes of rice to beneficiaries, while the Centre’s share is only 1.12 lakh MT. The deficit of 68,000 MT of rice is being procured from the open market by the TS government by spending '26 per kg.

Moreover, TS is providing rice at Rs 1 per kg, while Centre is supplying rice to the state at three variable prices — Rs 3 per kg, Rs 5.65 per kg and Rs 8.30 per kg.

These factors are putting huge burden on TS government. It recently wrote to the Centre seeking an increase in its quota from 1.12 lakh MT to 1.80 lakh MT.

Civil supplies commissioner Rajat Kumar recently visited New Delhi and met Union food ministry officials urging them to increase the rice quota for TS.