Food coupons would expand the consumers’ choice. The poor will always prefer cheaper foodgrain. In Maharashtra, for example, nearly half of the foodgrain demand of the poor is met by locally produced coarse cereals, benefiting the poorest class of farmers.

But food stamps threaten the vested interests in the present system. Arguments made by the Left against the idea of food coupons are knee-jerk reactions rather than based on sound reasoning. The demand for universal PDS is trotted out as if it were an alternative to the food stamps scheme.

Food stamps provide an alternative to the delivery mechanism of the food subsidy. It is a simple and practical idea that will help poor farmers as well as poor consumers while reducing the tremendous waste of government resources under the PDS.

The writer is a policy analyst associated with Pragati Abhiyan, a developmental NGO based in Nashik milind.murugkar@gmail.com