)
A view is emerging in the government not to promulgate an ordinance for its ambitious social security scheme -- Nationl Food Security Law. The government is also not likely to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the bill, as is speculated in certain quarters, those in know of the development said.
The bill, expected to be the main plank of the Congress in polls, is likely to come up for discussion in the Monsoon session of Parliament, beginning next month. The bill was tabled in the Budget session but could not be taken up for discussion because of pandemonium in the Lok Sabha over various scams.
Officials said the government had thought of an option of issuing an ordinance, but this route is increasingly being negated because of strong opposition from a section of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Also Read
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, rural development Jairam Ramesh and some other ministries have voiced their opposition to adopting the ordinance route to implement the proposed food law.
Officials said the department of food, the nodal department to implement, frame and operationalise the law is itself not is much favour of an ordinance to implement the food security law.
They said the ministry feels that all possible consensus should be evolved before the law is implemented as it is an important legislation of the government.
“The Bill is a result of years of hard work, numerous rounds of discussions and hence should not be rushed through,” a senior official said.
In fact, there is no clarity whether the ordinance was put before the Cabinet on Tuesday as was expected or whether it was on the agenda itself. Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram initially had evaded reply on repeated queries over the ordinance. Ultimately, he had said he could not reply on what was not taken up in the Cabinet.
The finance minister had said the food security bill was not brought before cabinet and it is before Parliament.
Even as the Cabinet meeting was on on Tuesday, the opposition voices its opposition against the bill. Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj had tweeted that the government should not be stubborn.
Officials admitted that a challenge is graver on the operation front, even if the bill becomes law.
They said it does not mean that the people across the country would start getting cheap food as soon as the bill is enacted. It will take sometime for the actual benefits to flow as states have to be brought on board, distribution systems strengthened.
The Bill, tabled in the Lok Sabha, promises legal entitlement for subsidized food to almost 80-84 crore Indians, out of a total estimated population of 120 crore.
The Bill in its latest avatar – it has undergone numerous changes ever since it was first tabled in Parliament on December 2011 –will provide 5 kilograms of either wheat or rice or coarse cereals per person per month at Rs 3 per kilogram for rice, Rs 2 per kilogram for wheat and Rs 1 per kilogram for coarse cereals.
Apart from that the Bill will also provide legal entitlement for subsidized grains or allowance to a host of other sections of the population like pregnant women, children and also poorest among the poor households, who would get 35 kilograms of grains per month also at a discounted price of 3, 2,1.
The bill in its current avatar – it was earlier proposed to give 7 kilograms of foodgrains to priority category households and 3-4 kilograms to general category households – will require an annual food subsidy of almost Rs 131,000 crore, which also includes almost 8,000 crore for other incidental expenditures like setting up National and State-Level Food Commission and grievance redressal mechanisms.
In, 2013-14 Union Budget, the government allocated Rs 90,000 crore as food subsidy, of which Rs 10,000 crore was solely on account of the NFSB.
Off course, the subsidy burden will escalate as and when the Bill is implemented across the country and also because Minimum Support Price of wheat and rice will have to increase to provide remunerative price to farmers, while the sale price will be much lower and flat for atleast 3 years.
