JOIN USGovt open to making workable amendments to Food Bill
Giving a final push to the Food Security Bill, the government on Monday said it was open to including “workable” amendments suggested by the Opposition, and reached out to a key supporter, the Samajwadi Party (SP), to allay its apprehensions on the welfare measure.
The National Food Security Bill, an initiative dear to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is expected to be taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Delhi and Haryana are also launching the initiative on Tuesday.
As many as 260 amendments to the bill have been moved by members, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired a strategy meeting with his senior ministerial colleagues on how to take the Bill forward.
Soon after the meeting, Food Minister K V Thomas, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel drove down to meet SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has raised objections to the initiative and made a presentation on how the bill would not give farmers a fair deal.
The SP has 22 members in the Lok Sabha, and their support, along with that of the BSP, is crucial for the ruling UPA, which otherwise is a minority. Yadav has called a meeting of the SP Parliamentary Party on Tuesday to discuss the Bill.
Earlier, Kamal Nath said the government was open to accepting “workable” amendments to the Bill. “The Law Ministry will have to clear them,” he said when asked whether the bill would be taken up by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Another cabinet minister present at the meeting said 12 crucial amendments were reviewed by the ministers.
Most of the amendments relate to making food security universal, inclusion of pulses and edible oil, besides food grains, and increasing entitlement to food grains from five to seven kg per person per month.
The government has been trying to take up the Bill for consideration in the Lok Sabha for the past week, but the attempts have been thwarted by the protests of four Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members over the UPA's decision to carve a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.
“The Speaker will take a decision tomorrow (on Tuesday),” said Kamal Nath when asked how the government planned to deal with the TDP members. One of the options before the Speaker is to name the four TDP members, which will bar them from being in the House for the day.
The Congress expects to reap electoral benefits by getting the Food Security Bill passed by Parliament ahead of the five assembly polls this year-end and the 2014 general election.
The Bill, dubbed as the biggest social welfare initiative of its kind in the world, aims at providing subsidised food grains to 82 crore citizens.
The Lok Sabha was scheduled to take up the Bill for discussion on Monday, but the proceedings were adjourned after paying tributes to Bilaspur MP Dilip Singh Judeo, who passed away on August 14.