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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Modi govt says food Bill against federal structure by Ravish Tiwari

Modi govt says food Bill against federal structure by Ravish Tiwari

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published Published on Nov 28, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 28, 2011

 Having publicly objected to the Communal Violence Bill drafted by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government has now sent its strong objections to Sonia’s pet project, National Food Security Bill, terming it against the sanctity of the federal structure of the Constitution.

Gujarat has objected to provisions that allow the Centre to prescribe terms and conditions for the appointment of district grievance redressal officers, empowers it with rule-making powers and gives the Centre the power to direct the state governments. It asserted that “such provisions are tantamount to undermining the federal structure of our Constitution and also imply mistrust of the state government”.

Registering its protest against the food Bill, the Modi government has told the Central government that while “creating legal entitlements may be easy”, the country “needs to reassess the culture of government subsidies and doles” under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had “initiated the process of liberalisation in 1990s”.

The Gujarat government has sought to impress upon the Centre that “expanding government” cannot be a replacement for the need for “improving governance” without any out-of-box ideas.

“The draft Food Security Bill is devoid of any innovative ideas that can overcome the governance (i.e. delivery) failure of existing food and nutrition programmes. It is hard to appreciate that creating legal entitlements and holding government servant accountable would redress the ‘delivery failure’ in the long supply chain from FCI (Food Corporation of India) to FPS (fair price shops),” Gujarat Food Minister Narottambhai Patel has written to the Centre.

As the Congress is pushing to introduce the food Bill in the current session of Parliament, the Gujarat government has objected to it saying that it “may end up encouraging ‘activists’ who would subject state governments to adverse publicity and litigation at various levels”.

It has also told the Centre that individual based foodgrain entitlement, without any cap on the size of households, “would have adverse impact on country’s voluntary family planning programme” and apprehended that it may run counter to larger objective of stabilising country’s population.

The BJP-ruled state has also objected to loose definition of ‘migrants’ as a separate category, saying that “migrants should not include the infiltrators else we will be creating uncalled for burden on our nation”.

In an economic argument, the Modi government has said that since this “central statute” would “burden” the state governments with “disproportionate legal, administrative, and financial liabilities”, the Bill should put a ceiling on state’s financial liabilities to no more than 20 per cent for any scheme to implement the law. The Centre must fund all “capital investment” to create infrastructure or facilities required for smooth roll out of the proposed law, it demanded.


The Indian Express, 28 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/modi-govt-says-food-bill-against-federal-structure/881324/


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