India launches giant cheap food programme

[ranjeet]

Here is an example of storage facilities !!!!

 

[jpsingh]

I belongs to a small village in Bihar, It is one of poorest state of India.
I am witnessing a change in government policies in last few year.
Most of the people in my village have got around $1500-$2000 for house/toilet.
Families are getting 20-30 Kg Rice/wheat and oil every month at very very cheap rate.
All the elder people are getting $20 pension per month.
Government is building roads and providing electricity.
Providing 100% free education, with lot of incentive like scholarship, food, cycles,dress to attract poor kids.
Despite many problems, there is no doubt that thing are changing for good
I am sure the day will come soon, when no one will go hungry.

 

[third eye]

This is an election stunt which just might help the congress.

Besides this I think it should made a crime at par with murder when food grains rot in govt granaries. The food corporation of India must be held accountable for the double whammy ..loss to exchequer and people going hungry.

 

[Truth Finder]

This scheme is going to cover 67% of Indian population which is about 800 million. They will get food almost free of cost.

 

[Cheetah786]

Doomed? Well, let's figure it out (pun intended!)

> Together, the total outlay for the FSB will likely amount to Rs200,000 crore per year — more than double the budgeted food-subsidy estimates for the current fiscal year. This huge expenditure could well make India’s fiscal recovery impossible, with current trends in government revenue and expenditure showing that while revenue growth has significantly weakened, expenditure growth has accelerated sharply.

> The fiscal stress India currently faces is worryingly similar to, if not worse than, the economic climate of the 1980s, which eventually led to the 1991 crisis. Add to that the Rs 200,000 crore going down the sinkhole.

> At least 50% will be eaten up my middlemen which include politicians and bureaucrats. This mostly due to the poor food-delivery mechanisms leading to massive leakages. No wonder most politicians have hit the bar to celebrate.

> Can India produce enough food to cope with the demand created by the bill? No! Especially during floods/drought etc, India would be forced to import food at much higher rates which would mean spending tens of thousands of crores of precious foreign exchange!

> That would translate to higher inflation due to the ballooning fiscal deficit.

> And what does all this mean for farmers? The very low prices of the subsidized food will distort the market and farmers who can’t sell to the government program will lose out in the open market because prices will be forced down.

> Many states, including Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi already have a subsidized food program so it is unclear how the two will run together or whether it will create confusion in both. Most likely the latter!

> It is estimated that within 5 years, the expenditure will shoot up to more than Rs 300,000 crores per year due to inflation and imports due to natural causes!

Friends, Indians, countrymen! Be prepared to dish out more taxes just like the tax surcharge on education. (We know where that money is going). We as ordinary taxpayers have no choice but to fund the profligacy of our netas for their vote banks.

For this humungous amount of expenditure, shouldn't the government instead develop infrastructure, promote growth, jobs, health, and increase the literacy rate? AS the saying goes:

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

But then, that wouldn't fill the Congress' vote bank, would it? At least that's what the Cong thinks! Screw you, screw me, screw the country! It all boils down to: KISSA KURSI KA! Amen

forgive me for saying this but please cut the crap of fiscal recovery.If this was scheme that gave you some financial freedom or tax break you will not call India revenue agency and say sorry it will create sisal mess i dont want this money.

 

[Armstrong]

thats because your country is in europe, you have fewer poor people..
we got them in massive numbers, non govt support is never enough for them..

Oh bhai we've also got much lesser resources for them but the notion of food philanthropy is very huge in Pakistan ! The downside of that is that because this philanthropic spirit isn't channelized we've haven't half the 'right' Institutions & NGOs we could seeing how much people really do 'give' !

But the upside is that no-one goes hungry like that...heck even in our household if someone gets ill...the goats had it ! Of to the slaughterhouse for them & the meat gets distributed to the poor in the community ! Its that or 2-3 daiggs (giant cauldrons) of Biryani prepared & distributed to the poor & the needy. And this happens over & over again.

It happens in Ramazan too where you'd find people out on the roads giving people water & dates at Iftar & the same thing happens in Moharam !

Unfortunately because somehow we got this ludicrous notion that giving 'food' is the best act of charity whereas no one goes hungry....so....so much else that could've been done were that spirit & those resources properly channelized, remains undone.

 

[Cheetah786]

Here is an example of storage facilities !!!!

what are they storing their?

 

[GURU DUTT]

what are they storing their?

food grains

well its more like rotting facilities that storage facilities and the rats are the biggest benificiaries of it

 

[livingdead]

what are they storing their?

wheat............ its a crime against humanity to let this food rot..

 

[ranjeet]

what are they storing their?

thats an average wheat/rice storage facility.

 

[Cheetah786]

wheat............ its a crime against humanity to let this food rot..

So the GOI buys it and stores it like this or its a private only?

 

[GURU DUTT]

So the GOI buys it and stores it like this or its a private only?

well first GOI buys it when they start to rot the sell it to privatre players at 1/10 the cost and lot of black money is genrated after wards

 

[anonymus]

If money reaches its intended target it will circulate and create jobs in long term.

1. The circulation of excess money in itself is a cause of inflation. ( This would have been a neutral bargain but for the other facts that would follow)

2. Government is already running heavy deficit. It would have to finance this deficit either by borrowing (unsustainable),High taxation ( which is already quite high) or by printing more money thus courting more inflation. This would be the most ruinous aspect of the whole saga.

3. High inflation combined with high taxation would suppress growth and by extension jobs that would have followed that growth.

4. The scheme even if implemented effectively would not do any good for long term welfare of poor. It would simply made them dependent on state.The effect would be similar to that of NREGA. That vicious scheme of Congis raised farm wages and dried up supply of labor for industries. The effect was inflation due to higher farm inputs.

Thus it would have a multiplier effect on inflation.

5. History has repeatedly proved the futility of socialism. Argentina, chile, EU are perfect examples of the ruin bring forth by this bankrupt ideology.

 

[kaykay]

Though Govt. Intention is seems to be good(if it is?) but I doubt that the extreme poor guys even have the Ration cards. I mean the people like beggers and those who live in temporary slums.

 

[livingdead]

So the GOI buys it and stores it like this or its a private only?

its most probably FCI (food corporation of india).. its a govt enterprise..
they are forced by farmer's lobby in punjab and haryana to buy more and more wheat, and let it rot because they dont have storage facility and farmers have record harvest now a days.

One of the good things that FDI in retail might bring, is storage facility of private companies.