PDS rot: Over 1/10th of foodgrain samples fail lab tests across states
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 29: India’s food subsidy bill amounts to Rs 2.87 lakh as per the revised budget estimate of 2022-23, and the public distribution system (PDS) is the principal means to deliver the sops to the people. The government’s data shared with the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a starred question showed that about 10 per cent of the samples lifted for quality check failed tests in several of the states.
The Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs shared the data of the annual public laboratory testing for 2021-22, which revealed the excessive failure rates of the samples against the established quality norms. For instance, 5290 samples were lifted from the PDS shops in Andhra Pradesh and 528 of them were found not conforming to the norms, while results of 45 were still awaited. This accounts for almost 10 per cent failure rate.
In Chhattisgarh, 1437 samples were lifted for laboratory testing and 160 of them failed to comply with the norms, which accounts for over 12 per cent failure rate. Same was the story from Assam where out of the 523 lifted samples 64 failed to comply with the norms.
Madhya Pradesh also reported a total of 889 samples not meeting the norms out of the total sample of 15355, which comes close to a failure rate of six per cent. Punjab reported a total of 784 samples not complying with the norms out of the total lifted samples of 6768, which translated to close to 12 per cent failure rate.
The incidents of a large number of foodgrains samples not complying with norms were found across the states with no region and size bias. For instance, Rajasthan reported a total of 2895 samples failing to meet the norms out of the total lifted samples of 12879, which was almost 22 per cent, the government informed the Lok Sabha.
Close to 14 per cent of the samples failed to comply with the norms of the PDS in Tamil Nadu, as 2745 samples failed the test out of the total 19858 tested by the laboratories. A whopping 29 per cent of the samples failed to comply with the norms in Uttar Pradesh, said the Ministry in its reply, as 7781 of the 26934 lifted PDS failed to meet the set norms.
As per the norms, the Ministry has registered criminal cases against PDS shops, which failed the laboratory test. Under the Essential Commodities Act, actions are taken against the culprits.
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