New Delhi, Feb. 8: Bengal is likely to be the first state that will introduce food stamps for poor families as part of a government-funded pilot project, which could eventually replace the way monthly rations of food are given to the poor.

Sometime ago, the Union finance ministry asked state chief ministers for their comments on a plan to bring in food stamps to check leaks in the corruption-riddled public distribution system.

Finance minister P. Chidambaram announced in his budget for 2004-05 that the government was planning to introduce a food stamps scheme.

Bengal is the only state that has offered to test the effectiveness of a food stamps programme, which has been reasonably successful in providing basic necessities to the indigent people in the US.

Mohammed Salim, former Bengal cabinet minister and CPM member of the Lok Sabha, said: ?We were not sure what the Centre wanted initially and felt there was some confusion. But now we have no objection to the scheme being tried out on a pilot basis.?

North Block, which is working on the pilot project plan, wants to introduce it in selected blocks of Bengal as well as a few other states sometime after this year?s annual budget.

The plan is modelled on the US system where the government issues food stamps to the disadvantaged to help them buy food from food stores selected by the federal government. It calls for initial implementation through the country?s normal chain of ration shops.

Food stamps will enable families to buy their supply of wheat or rice or sugar at a subsidised price as and when they need it and not in one go on a monthly basis as they now have to.

North Block economists feel this is a better system as disadvantaged people do not always have even the subsidised amount needed to buy their quota of grain at any point of time in a month. As a result, much of the grain offered for sale through the system remains unsold.

The details of the programme are still being worked out. Here?s one way that it may be implemented: in the areas selected for testing, the price of grain in ration shops would be the same for everyone. However, poor families would be given food stamps to cover a part of the price. These may either be sold for a token amount or given free of cost.

The coupons or stamps could then be used to buy grain at lower prices. Ration storekeepers could, in turn, encash them from designated offices.

The government feels it will eliminate leaks which are now rampant in the dual pricing set-up where poor families get food at a lower rate and middle class families, who also access grain from these shops, buy food at a price that is closer to market rates.

Of course, the main aim of the Congress-led government in considering this reform measure is a need to cut down its burgeoning food subsidy bill by rationalising the payout.

The government?s total subsidy bill has bloated to a huge Rs 1,15,824 crore or 44 per cent of its net revenues. Direct subsidies to consumers on food, kerosene, cooking gas and fertiliser alone account for almost Rs 50,000 crore.

If the pilot project succeeds, the plan could be introduced throughout the country and privately run stores may also be allowed to sell food against the food stamps.

But Chidambaram?s plan has both supporters and detractors within the Centre and a final take on it may have to come from the Prime Minister.

Critics of the food stamps programme say it could throw up its own set of problems. In the US where food stamps have been part of the government?s attempt to help farmers sell their produce and the poor have a better life since 1933, several scams have occurred.

Economists are particularly worried that stamps may be exchanged at a discount for cash or for liquor by unscrupulous shopkeepers. One way to get round this problem is to issue the stamps to the women in each identified poor family.

The Telgi fake stamp case as well as fake currency cases which have been unearthed in the recent past are also fresh in everyone?s mind and there are worries that similar scams may happen in food stamps.

In fact, the Union food ministry has already informed North Block that it has its reservations about such a programme and warned that it might be unworkable.

In the US where food stamps are used to buy grain and also processed foods, including even potato chips and vitamin supplements, the government has tried to settle these worries by partially replacing the stamps with electronic cards similar to credit cards.