MARIE ANTOINETTE REVISITED

23 March 2011

MARIE  ANTOINETTE  REVISITED

Upon being told that people are starving for want of bread, Marie Antoinette is supposed to have remarked,

“If people don’t have bread, why don’t they eat cake? “

While framing National Food Security Bill, Government of India seems to echo the same sentiment !

 The Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) , based in Delhi, has come up with following figures :

• No of households in India  ………………………240  million

• No of undernourished people  …………………230  million

• Food grains required for 1 year ………………115 million tons

• Subsidy amount needed ……………………….$ 370 billion

• Subsidy amount budgeted ……………………$ 121 billion

• Subsidy amount short ……………………………$ 249 billion

Isn’t that a strange coincidence that , as per Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) , India’s coal-mafia has usurped the same amount ( approx $ 260 billion ) , year after year, when 2,348 children have been dying from mal-nutrition every single day ?

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH