Since Congress is going all out this festive season for getting return gifts, guess we all know what is coming next for the state as a gift.
As soon as Rahul Gandhi’s personal choice, or non-choice, Lalu Yadav was locked up for five years after a big drama, UPA government is already opening its kitty to woo Bihar voters.
Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday announced that Bihar’s food subsidy and foodgrain allocation would be doubled under the National Food Security Bill.
“Bihar’s food subsidy will increase from Rs.5,500 crore to Rs.11,500 crore and allocation of foodgrain will increase from 28 lakh tonnes to 56 lakh tonnes,” Ramesh said at a press conference in Patna.
The minister, who is in the state capital to attend a Congress party function, said Bihar will benefit the most under the bill. He said the public distribution system (PDS) in the state was in bad shape.
“Bihar’s population is more than Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra but PDS shops are less than the two states. That itself indicates its poor story,” he said. “Now, it is high time to bring a change in the PDS network in Bihar to implement the food security bill in a proper manner,” he added.
With Ramesh taking a dig at the bad state of PDS in the state it really is not clear whether it was a dig at the CM Nitish Kumar or just another added sentence in order to push food subsidy in the state to the fore. But we are well aware that Rahul admires Nitish as the “development man”.
After BJP-JD(U) alliance broke up, it was speculated that Nitish will join UPA for either’s next term. The famous “nonsense” act that Congress vice-president and others pulled up to box RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s career made it more obvious. Now with the food subsidy plank opened, the buzz in the political circuits only goes to a higher note.
However, Nitish Kumar will not settle for less than special status for his state. It has been a long-due demand from UPA government by the CM.
Since Congress is going all out this festive season for getting return gifts, guess we all know what is coming next for the state as a gift.
