 The Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anayojna may be discontinued by the government after September. This move could have devastating impacts for millions of people who are heavily dependent on the scheme for sustenance. News click spoke to Right to Food Activist, Professor Deepa Sinha to better understand the scheme as well as the implications of its withdrawal. PMGKAI was a scheme that the government started in 2020 as part of its COVID relief packages following the national lockdown. Then every six months, they extended it for a longer period because the need has been felt on the ground. The last extension happened in March 2022 for six months, so we know that till September 2022, this is going to continue. Now under the scheme, basically about 80 crore people who are covered under the National Food Security Act with priority of AAY ration cards are given 5 kgs of food grains additionally for free. Information about the discontinuation of the scheme came to light when on June 24, the Economic Times published a report based on an internal note of the Finance Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs or the DEA. The DEA in this note argues that excessive spending has already inflated the food and fertiliser subsidy and such measures coupled with giving tax concessions on petrol and diesel need to be rationalised in order to protect growth supportive capital expenditure but also for avoiding fiscal slippage, warning that a higher fiscal deficit could widen the current account deficit. To put it simply, what this means is that the Modi government, like any true pro-corporate government, is once again prioritising profits over people. It has started thinking about winding down spending on welfare measures motivated by the discredited theory that government spending needs to be minimised and fiscal deficit controlled so that the private sector gets space to move forward. The PM Gareeb Kalyan Anayojna had turned out to be a lifesaver during the COVID period by providing much needed additional food grain to families that had lost all earnings in the extended lockdowns and pandemic devastation. A number of studies that various people have conducted, including the Right to Food Campaign, looking at the state of hunger among people post-COVID have shown that this relief that people have been getting from the government in the form of these additional food grains for free has played a very big role in keeping many families away from starvation. It is because these cereals were guaranteed and something that they had, people were able to cope and they had something to eat even though they cut down on pulses, they cut down on vegetables and so on. The scheme also helped garner goodwill for the ruling party during recent assembly elections in several states. It was probably this ground support that compelled the Modi government to extend the scheme several times the last time in March this year. Going by the note of the DEA, the Finance Ministry appears to be of the view that the pandemic is over. The economy is rebounding and therefore there is really no need for the additional free grain to be provided. While it is true that the raging pandemic finally seems to have simmered down, this bizarre view by the ministry neglects the fact that the country is still in the grip of a double whammy of staggering joblessness and zooming prices which have suppressed demand and hence killed any chance of the much-hyped recovery. Our assessment based on our field visits and directing with people is that that situation continues and in some ways it has even worsened because the last few months have in fact seen a rise in food prices because of global increase in petroleum prices as well as the Ukraine invasion that's going on which has affected the availability of meat globally and so on. The circumstances are such that people continue to need the support and if they don't get it, it could be quite difficult for them because there is employment is still not caught up, incomes have not caught up and this is something that is providing basic food security. Even though the discontinuation of the scheme has not yet officially been proposed, the fact that these opinions have been circulated to journalists implies that there is lobbying going on to get these views accepted as policy. The note claims that the country's current fiscal position has been damaged by several instances of increased subsidies in food, fertilizers and fuel costs. But the fact of the matter is that the reason these subsidies were needed in the first place was because of faulty government policies that left common people in the lurch during a trying time. Petrol in diesel prices for instance would increase dramatically by the government over the months in order to raise revenue. So now for them to count the reduction of prices which are still not as low as before as a subsidy is not only inaccurate but also deceitful. If one creates a mess for others and then offers to clean it up they are not doing others a favour but simply doing their job. Needless to say there, the note is a reflection of the dominant economic policy thinking in the Modi government which is always resistant to economic relief to people being given from the exchequer. Although of course like all other issues this will ultimately be balanced with political considerations, if elections are to be won then this thinking gets shunted to the back burner and populism takes over. The government has for years now even before covid if you look at their various reports like economic survey and so on have been saying that this public distribution system is a whole huge drain on resources and that the spending on it has to reduce and they've been talking about reduction in coverage under PDS. They've been talking about increasing the prices various ways in which they can reduce their fiscal burden and this has to be seen I think in the larger context of what kind of fiscal policies really required in the current context of India where we see that growth has not recovered and it was sort of slowed down even before covid and it's very clear now there's various statistics and information available to tell us that a big problem is the lack of purchasing power that people who earn wages are not able to demand because they're earning less than they used to and prices are rising. So in such a context what you really need is an expansion of fiscal policy which puts money into the hands of people and the public distribution system would fit into that. It's a very good scheme because it is an income transfer because if people are getting free grains then they have that money to spend on other things. Similarly the NREGA the Rural Employment Guarantee scheme also would be something that puts wages into the hands of people who spend. So right now I think fiscal prudence is not what should be the main objective of the government rather supporting people so that the purchasing power increases that there is revival of demand of the economy and that is something in my opinion is good for the economy as well. The Modi government's record doesn't provide much confidence that these views recorded in the DEA note will not be given serious consideration. In that case common people across the country may well be facing a very serious financial crisis as any relief in the form of staples will be wiped out after September. Instead of providing income support to non-income tax paying families and expanding the PDS system this will be a retrograde step that will further aggravate the already grey financial crisis facing the people proving once again that for the Modi government profits will always be more important than people.