Thanks For The Free Grain, But No Thanks For The Gas

For Annamma Abraham, 60, life has always been tough. Her calm demeanour in muddy-wet clothes after a hard day’s work in the paddy fields belies her sad struggle to feed her geriatric mother and her physically challenged younger bro­ther. After retiring as a nurse in Tamil Nadu, she returned home to Veloor village, Kottayam district, Kerala. She leases out two acres of land at Rs 10,000 per acre to cultivate paddy and her brother helps her out. The new worry that is nagging her comes in the form of the food security bill that is being enacted by the lawmakers in Delhi.

As an Antyodaya Anna Yojana card holder, her family of three enjoys the 30 kg of rice it gets through the month for Rs 1 a kg. But the new law, instead of providing succour, she worries, may just cut into her ration entitlement. With a family of just three, her ration allotment is going to reduce drastica­lly by nearly 50 per cent to just 15 kg. “Just let the old system be,” she ple­ads. Like Anna­mma, many in Kerala are trying to comprehend how the new law will pan out for the state.

For the 600 farmers of R Block, Kuttanad, Alappuzha district, whose cash crops have been completely des­troyed by the monsoons, fsa sounds like another sop in election year. Says Sanujan N.K., the R Block Padda­she­khara Samithi president, who owns about four acres of land, “I pledged my gold for a Rs 3 lakh loan. The floods this year have destroyed my crop completely. It will take another three to four years for the land to yield crop; till then it is going to be tough. The fsa will not benefit farmers. It should extend to them too.”

Finally, 45-year-old Kunjumol has another question for the government—why is it hiking up the price of gas every month even as they project the food security bill? How is anyone going to cook the free grains—that’s what she wants to know.

By Minu Ittyipe in Kottayam and Alappuzha districts