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NAC, Govt differ over Food Bill by Sreelatha Menon

In the wake of Dreze quitting NAC, Mander vows to fight for changes.

Differences between the National Advisory Council (NAC) and the government have come out in the open over the Food Security Bill, which was approved by a Group of Ministers this month.

While Jean Dreze, who had earlier quit the working group on food security after recommendations by the members were diluted by the NAC itself, chose to quit the NAC itself last month, another member Harsh Mander has vowed to keep fighting at all levels for changes in the Bill.

WHY NAC MEMBERS ANGRY

1- NAC defines malnutrition, starvation, nutrition rehabilitation centres
Govt drops these terms
2- NAC defines grains as rice, wheat, millets, sorghum, maize
Govt definition includes rice, wheat, nutri cereals
3- NAC refers to public distribution system
Govt corrects it to ‘targeted PDS’
4- NAC favours 4 kilos per person in general category
Govt provides three kilos
5- NAC provides for prevention and treatment of mal nutrition
Govt drops it
6- NAC for public nomination of food commissioner
Govt leaves this out
7- NAC lists out functions of commissioner
Govt provides no functions
8- NAC allows commissioner to give penalties and powers of a civil court
Govt drops this
9- NAC provides system of grievance redressal
Govt drops it
10- NAC provides three times cash equivalent of food entitlement as compensation
Govt drops compensation, PDS, homeless persons restricted by govt draft

N C Saxena and M S Swaminathan, two other NAC members, have also expressed differences with the government’s draft. Saxena said there were differences with the Bill but it was not certain whether it could be taken up in NAC again.

Dreze told NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi that he did not wish to renew his tenure of one year, citing preoccupation with academic work. He had raised concern over the way the draft of the food security Bill had been diluted. While Dreze has been bitter on the refusal of the NAC to go for a uniform public distribution system (PDS), he has been more upset by the now government’s approved draft which provides for cash transfer in place of food grains.

Dreze last week sent out findings of a survey by 40 researchers, including him, on PDS and views of the people on cash transfer to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The survey, conducted among 1,220 households in nine states, found only 18 per cent people wanted cash transfer as proposed in the food security Bill.

Mander, another co-author of the NAC version of the food security Bill, was more vocal. He told Business Standard that the draft Bill approved by GoM was too diluted and almost negated the purpose of the food security Bill. “We will all fight at our individual level till the Bill becomes a law to see that changes are made.”

Mander is a food commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court in the Right to Food public interest litigation.

He said lessons learnt from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, and Right to Education and Right to Information Bills had gone into the making of this Bill, too. “So, we provided for a food commissioner to monitor and help beneficiaries actually get their entitlements,” he said. Mander also said NAC’s grievance redressal proposal had been reduced to almost nothing in the Bill from the food ministry and approved by the GoM.

Asked if this would be taken up in NAC again, he said members would now pursue the matter at their individual levels. “The Bill can be changed till the point it is in the standing committee and we are hoping to get those changes in,” Mander said.

The Right to Food campaign, a civil society movement for food rights, would challenge the food law in court if it is made in the current form.