No starvation death in last 3 years, says government

from Rediff

The government on Friday said no state in the country has recorded any incidents of deaths due to starvation during the last three years.

"No incident of starvation death has been reported by any state or Union territory, including the national capital, so far," Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Akhilesh Prasad Singh told the Rajya Sabha. He was replying to a question whether many cases of death due to starvation have been reported from various parts of the country and even in the national capital during the last three years.

The minister said the government is allocating foodgrains at subsidised rates for people living Below the Poverty Line, Above the Poverty Line and under Antodaya Anna Yojana and Targeted Public Distribution System for maintaining food security in the country.

In another reply, the minister said the government did not agree with the recommendation of the Abhijit Sen Committee that suggested reintroduction of the universal PDS with uniform central issue price.

"The introduction of universal PDS may result in the PDS losing its focus on meeting the needs of the poor," he said.

Singh said the TPDS was introduced in 1997 aiming at the underprivileged sections of society, as the earlier universal PDS did not adequately focus on the hungry and had an urban bias.

Allocations of rice and wheat for the BPL and AAY families are made at 35 kilograms per family per month, while they vary for APL households.