Welfare schemes fail to consume 'surplus' grains.

(From The Economic Times)

Byline: Arjun Ray Chaudhuri

: Surplus foodgrains do not automatically guarantee food security to the poor. This is evident from the fact that despite India emerging as foodgrain-surplus economy in the recent years, the various welfare schemes introduced by the government have not done much by way of making foodgrains available to the needy.

The response to various welfare schemes introduced by the central government since 1995 has been mixed. While the offtake of foodgrains from the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) has grown by about 34% since FY00, offtake from the Antyodaya scheme has become stagnant in FY04, …