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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | It's a travesty of food security, says CPI(M) by Gargi Parsai

It's a travesty of food security, says CPI(M) by Gargi Parsai

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published Published on Dec 18, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 18, 2011

Bill will come up for discussion in the Cabinet on Monday, says K.V. Thomas

Even as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday said the proposed National Food Security Bill was “unacceptable,” Minister of State for Food K.V. Thomas indicated that legislation was coming up for discussion in the Cabinet on Monday.

The CPI(M) has demanded the removal of the linking of entitlements to reforms in the public distribution system from the draft. It said legislation must include the universal right to at least 35 kg of grains at Rs. 2 a kg.

Mr. Thomas said the draft could not be discussed at the Cabinet meeting earlier this week for paucity of time. The government planned to introduce it in Parliament during the ongoing session that is scheduled to conclude on December 22.

“Discussions will continue when the Cabinet meets at 9.30 a.m. on Monday,” he told journalists on the Parliament precincts.

On the objections raised at the last Cabinet meeting by senior ministers on the financial implications of providing subsidised grains to identified beneficiaries and issues of pilferage, he said: “that is why the Cabinet will look into it.”

Describing the proposed legislation as a “travesty of food security,” the CPI(M) said: “Not only does it continue with the flawed system of targeting food security at Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) sections as ‘priority' and ‘general' categories, it links rights and entitlements of general sections to the so-called reforms in the PDS.''

“These reforms, which have been brought in as a separate chapter in the Bill, include highly contested policy measures such as cash transfers instead of foodgrains and even use of aadhar ,” the party said in a statement.

Objecting to the new provisions “which will reduce the entire Bill into a platform to push through neo-liberal reforms with legal sanction,” the party asserted that they were against the interest of people and will lead to further exclusions (of beneficiaries).

Charging the Centre with violating federal norms through the provisions of the Bill, the party said that in the draft, the Centre reserved the right to notify the date of PDS reforms, which will be mandatory for all State governments.

Besides, the Centre would decide the percentage of people below the poverty line and the State governments would have to pay a substantial share of the funds required for other schemes included in the Bill without any indication of what the Centre-State ratio of expenditure would be.

“It appears the Central government wants to utilise the widespread demand for a strong food security bill to push through narrow agendas of those agri-businesses and corporates, who want dismantling of the PDS and a truncated Food Security Bill,” the CPI(M) said.

Universal PDS sought

Meanwhile, members of the Right to Food Campaign protested on Friday outside the Krishi Bhavan here against the proposed ‘targeted' Food Security Bill. They pressed their demand for legislation that provides for universal PDS. They met Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat and presented their demands.

“To say that we don't have enough grains or money to feed people is dishonest. Food has to be an entitlement just as health and education are. It is a question of attitude,” said activist Kavita Srivastava.

The draft provided for mandatory supply of subsidised grains to identified beneficiaries under the targeted public distribution system. It proposed coverage of up to 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of urban population, including 46 per cent rural ‘priority' families and 28 per cent urban ‘priority' households.

Bill pushes through neo-liberal reforms with legal sanction: CPI(M)
To say not enough grains or money to feed people is dishonest: Right to Food Campaign


The Hindu, 18 December, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2725225.ece


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