We don't believe in just making promises and then forgetting them. We have concrete plans, specially to ensure food, for every family. Our specific plan is to make a package of food available to every poor family at only Rs 100. This will include 25 kg of rice, two kg of edible oil, a kg of yellow dal, tamarind and iodised salt.

With a daily wage of Rs 80 to Rs 100, a family will get its food requirement for the entire month. This will meet the basic need of poor families and ensure that there is no starvation in the state. I am confident that the scheme will catch up with the masses.

At the same time, I feel this is not a panacea for poverty and lack of development. Such schemes are only a stopgap arrangement and a temporary solution to the problem of starvation.