National Food Security Bill to be tabled in Parliament on March 22

22 Mar 2013 Evaluate

National Food Security Bill, which got Cabinet’s approval earlier this week, will be presented in the Parliament on March 22, with a hope that the revised bill will see the light of the day before the current session draws to an end on May 10. Under the revised Food Security Bill, 67% of India’s population will have the right to get a monthly quota of 5 kg of food-grains at highly subsidized rates of Rs 1-3 per kg, which means atleast 5 kg of food grains would be guaranteed to one person per month under the bill, with the poorest of the poor continuing to get 35 kg per month.

Earlier, it was reported that Cabinet would try to bring ‘amendments to the Food Bill in Parliament before Friday'. Uptill now, 55-56 amendment bills have been made in-line with the suggestions made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which submitted its report in January this year.

With the hope that this decision to supply cheap wheat and  rice will fetch government with rich dividends in the next general election, the price of Rice to be sold through ration shops has been fixed at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2 and millets at Re 1 in the first three years of the implementation of the Act, which is way lower than the market price of over Rs 20/kg for rice and Rs 16/kg for wheat. However, the right to decide on the beneficiaries would be in the hands of state government, while the rights to exclude 33% of population will be of Planning Commissions.

In the previous bill that was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, the Centre had proposed 7 kg of rice or wheat or millet a month for priority category at Rs 3, Rs 2 and Re 1 per kg respectively, while at least 3 kg per person per month for general households at 50 percent of support price. However, this time around the bill proposes only one category of beneficiary with uniform entitlement at uniform price.

Further, laying more burden on state government, the bill envisages liability of the central government under the Right to Food Security to be limited uptill providing grains to the state food depots, with the former being charged penalty if it fails to provide these gains to the intended beneficiaries.

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