After he was castigated by his party colleagues, including the veterans like Sunderlal Patwa, for his lack of control over the bureaucracy and the poor governance in the State, Shivraj Singh Chauhan decided to show to the people that he is not a weak chief minister. Accompanied by his media managers (who would ensure proper publicity of his Don Quixote-like adventure), he marched on a Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown, put some grains on his palms and declared that the Central Government had provided this wheat for distribution to the poor families through the Public Distribution System (PDS) though this wheat was not fit even for feeding to the cattle. Back in the office, he shot a missive to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar expressing his profound concern for the hapless recipients of this substandard wheat.

What did this ultimately prove? Only that his critics at the party's chintan baithak at Sanchi were absolutely right and that he is nothing but a puppet in the hands of the bureaucrats. Because, when Chauhan was giving vent to his feigned indignation over the supply of substandard wheat at the FCI godown, it was pointed out to him by the FCI officials that the State government officials approved the samples, as is the standard practice. Chauhan could not muster courage to call the State government officials and ask them to explain.

Whom was Chauhan trying to fool by his cheap nautanki? Doesn't he know that the Public Distribution System in the State is stinking? That the subsidised foodgrains meant for the poor families do not reach them, but find their way into the black market through the bureaucrat-trader nexus?

The rot in the PDS is not recent or new but it has been worsening after Chauhan took charge of the State. He had been promising steps to check the "irregularities" in the PDS and even acknowledging that the situation was much worse in the villages. Last April he had come out with the brilliant idea of replacing the PDS with a new system to ensure "proper and timely distribution" of consumer items such as foodgrains and kerosene.

Chauhan had, within a week of his becoming chief minister, asked his cabinet colleagues, Commissioners and Collectors to undertake regular inspection of fair price shops in the rural areas so that essential commodities including wheat and kerosene were easily made available to the poor families. But the rot has since only deepened. Taking any step to arrest the rot meant annoying the bureaucracy as well as the unscrupulous traders, most of who subscribe to Chauhan's own party.

An estimated 28 per cent of the families below the poverty line (BPL) in the rural areas and 43 per cent in the urban areas have not yet been issued ration cards and are thus unable to draw their quota of the PDS foodgrains. What happens to their share of foodgrains is anybody's guess.

Acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the Madhya Pradesh High Court, at Jabalpur, has served notices to all the District Collectors in the State seeking their replies on the alleged irregularities in the PDS.