Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said government will soon come out with a draft Food Security Bill.
The government on Tuesday approved the revised Food Security Bill to provide for uniform 5 kg of foodgrains per month per person at a highly subsidised price of Rs 1 to 3 per kg to two-thirds of the country's population.
A decision on the legal right of the poor to get wheat or rice at Rs 3 per kg was deferred on Thursday as Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar could not attend the meeting of a panel of ministers on the Food Security Bill on health grounds.
'Any meaningful food security programme should aim at gradually reducing the number of hungry dependent on government support,' says Devinder Sharma. 'This is only possible if the government had looked at the entire issue in a sincere manner. I don't think at any stage the government was honest in its approach. It had simply worked and reworked the Food Security Bill keeping the 2014 election in mind.'
The much-touted Food Security Bill, which proposes to give the country's three-fourth population the right to highly-subsidised food, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, with the government rejecting apprehensions that it would impinge upon the rights of states.
Aiming to provide food security to the poor, the government today approved food bill that seeks to give legal entitlement of cheaper food grains to 63.5 per cent of the country's population.
The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee has cleared the Food Security Bill, paving the way for Right to food to be made a fundamental right backed by legal provision. The bill is strongly supported by Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The government which introduced amendments to the landmark Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha Thursday could not get it passed as opposition stalled proceedings in the House over killing of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan and other issues.
Amid talk of a special session of Parliament on the Food Security Bill, government said all options are open on the issue.
The ordinance on the Food Security Bill is expected to come up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, sources said on Monday.
It will also end the below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) demarcation, prevailing in the current public distribution system.
In the proposed law, beneficiaries have been divided into two categories-- priority households and the general households.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to oppose the Food Security Bill, and has also called for a meeting of all chief ministers for a discussion on the issue.
The government is being pushed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to put the food bill on fast track as the Congress had promised a 'right to food' in its 2009 election manifesto, reports Anita Katyal
To translate into more spending on education, health, and nutritious food.
Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the proposed Food Security Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the bill, in its current form, will push the country toward "malnutrition".
The government today decided to promulgate an ordinance to give nation's two-third population the right to 5 kgs of foodgrain every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg. The Cabinet, which had in June deferred a decision on the issue, today approved promulgating an ordinance to implement the Food Security Bill, sources said.
It does not bar any state or the Centre from continuing or launching other food-based schemes.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of senior ministers on Tuesday to discuss the recommendations of the National Advisory Council on the Food Security Bill.
It should be called the food insecurity bill. It is too weak and mean to fight hunger, says Praful Bidwai
The National Food Security Bill was scuttled by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar who threw the spanner with a dissent note in his capacity as the Union agriculture minister.
The big budget and big boom National Food Security Bill, which will be to UPA II what the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right To Information Act were to UPA I, could not be cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday and has been deferred to be taken up in its next meeting.
The overall fiscal and inflationary consequences of the Food Security Bill for the country are "large" and will become clear from the next fiscal year.
Most Congress leaders felt the government should introduce an ordinance so that the party can get the credit for the legislation that will provide food security to millions in the country.
'Because the economics of the Food Security Bill is not viable, poor people are not going to get it. Poor people are going to take it and sell it in the open market. How does migrant labour store rice securely,' asks RS Seshadri, an agro industry expert
Two key legislations Lokpal Bill and Food Security Bill -- are expected to be taken up by the Union Cabinet on Sunday after which they will be brought to Parliament next week.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday raised doubts over whether the proposed Food Security Bill approved by the Union Cabinet would achieve its objectives, wondering whether it would turn out to be another "scam".
The Bill at best makes the existing public distribution system a legal right, an aspect that seems of little consequence to the lords of high finance, whose primary anxiety is the FSB-by-numbers.
Alleging that people's confidence has been shaken due to the economic mismanagement by the UPA government, a Trinamool Congress MP on Wednesday said it was worrisome that the rupee slid further after passage of the food security bill.
If Minister of State for Food K V Thomas has his say in the proposed Food Security Bill, the eldest woman in the family -- and not the patriarch -- will be designated the head of family in the ration card.
A meaningful long-run strategy to eradicate poverty would do more than a top-down distributive model.
If the government manages to deliver on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's scheme of providing grains to the needy at nominal rates, it could mean an end malnutrition issues in rural areas.
The Andhra Pradesh Congress and Telugu Desam members of Parliament are to strategise their approach on how to plan an agitation inside Parliament on Friday. Groups of MPs have already fixed dinner meetings. News is that Telangana MPs are also planning such meetings.
Team Anna on Monday evening demanded that Lokpal Bill be passed by Parliament before the legislation on Food Security to ensure that the money spent on ensuring food for all reaches the deserved without any diversion of funds.
The Manmohan Singh government's rush to pass the Food Security Bill reflects extreme paucity of logic and action, says Neeta Kolhatkar
The current cost of the food subsidy is Rs 1 trillion.
Amid the government's plan to take up and possibly pass the ambitious Food Security Bill in Parliament, Congress has issued a whip to its members in Lok Sabha to be present in the House on Wednesday and vote in favour of the legislation.
Terming the Bill as a 'non political bipartisan issue,' he hoped to have all political parties on board as the Bill would benefit over 75 per cent of rural households and 50 per cent of urban households in the country.
The Samajwadi Party on Monday said it will support the Food Security Bill in Parliament if the amendments, including giving due price to farmers and changing the definition of those below the poverty line, suggested by it, are accepted.
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Can the leaky public distribution system, or PDS, deliver the subsidised grain to two-thirds of the population?
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