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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Food security: NAC snubs Pawar

Food security: NAC snubs Pawar

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published Published on Oct 30, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 30, 2010

The National Advisory Council, headed by Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, may have grudgingly settled for a much less ambitious National Food Security Act than previously envisaged.

But a proactive Sonia now plans to push for a full-fledged ministry of food security, carving it out of the agriculture ministry headed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Sources said she had been advised by stakeholders in the party and outside that the ministry of food should be repackaged as ministry of food security.

This will make it more focused and effective in handling the party's flagship programmes such as the Right to Food and also take effective steps to rein in food inflation.

Effective implementation of the Right to Food is dependent on the Public Distribution System, which needs thorough overhauling.

Sources said a new minister for food, public distribution and consumer affairs may be appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the next cabinet reshuffle.

Under Sharad Pawar, both the agriculture and the food ministries have failed to perform.

When UPA-I was formed in 2004, Nationalist Congress Party chief Pawar drove a hard bargain and got food, consumer affairs, public distribution and civil supplies amalgamated into the agriculture ministry.

After six years and increasing criticism of his handling of the affairs, Pawar realised that he had bitten more than he could chew. On July 4, he requested the Prime Minister to "ease his burden".

He also realised that Sonia meant business and that he would have to deliver on the food front.

Pawar faced more heat after the second edition of the NAC came into being.

Sources said the growing disconnect between the minister and food experts in the NAC has also re-emphasised the need for a reality check.

The proposal to separate food from the agriculture ministry again has been welcomed. A senior Congress leader said: "Food security is a serious matter, a separate, full-fledged ministry would help.

"Food security is linked to several ministries, including finance, and factors such as price rise, production, shortage.

The Right to Food is not just a flagship programme but a campaign covering the entire country. We need to implement it seriously."

Some NAC proposals

- Universalise the public distribution system

- Ban futures trading in food commodities

- Meet domestic needs by domestic production

- Ban food export until malnutrition is contained

- Moratorium on genetically modified (GM) seeds, GM food imports and use of GM food in government food schemes

- Beneficiaries of any nutrition-related scheme must be given food and not money.


India Today, 29 October, 2010, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/118172/India/sonias-food-snub-for-ncp-chief.html


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