Eyeing polls, govt okays Food Bill

Congress hopes Sonias pet project will reap rich dividends soon

The Food Security Bill, which is close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s heart, is likely to be introduced in Parliament before the current winter session ends.

The Congress hopes the bill would be passed by Parliament during the Budget Session and it would be able to reap its political dividends in the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and four other states next year.

The special meeting of the Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod to the draft Bill after a brief discussion.

According to the bill, each person of the priority household, similar to BPL families would receive through the present PDS seven kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains per month at the rate of Rs 3, Rs 2 and Re 1 per kg respectively.

General category (APL) families would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50 per cent of the minimum support price.

According to estimates, the implementation of the proposal would result in higher food subsidy by Rs 27,663 crore taking the overall figure to about Rs 95,000 crore, while foodgrain requirement would go up to 61 million tonne from current 55 million tonne.

Though the bill came up for discussion on Tuesday, it was deferred after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar expressed his concern over the additional financial burden it would impose on the debt-ridden government. However, after the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, the Cabinet held a special meeting on Sunday exclusively to discuss this issue and gave its nod. Like the MGNREGA, the Food Security Scheme is also a pet project of the UPA chairperson.