The Cabinet has cleared the food security law, with vociferous support from ministers drowning out concerns over budgetary burden to meet the mammoth task of providing subsidized ration to 67% of India’s population.
The flagship promise, which is Congress’s poll plank for the 2014 elections, was pushed through on the day DMK pulled out of the ruling coalition to raise doubts about UPA’s durability. The move to clear the Cabinet hurdle coincided with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s direction to government managers that the bill be passed in the ongoing budget session, indicating that the leadership is averse to cutting it too fine in the given political flux.
The food bill found the unanimous backing of the Cabinet except the concerns flagged by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and finance minister P Chidambaram. The law provides for monthly quota of coarse grains, wheat and rice for Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg respectively. Each person would be entitled to 5 kg of foodgrain per month. The bill is likely to cost Rs 1.30 lakh crore annually against the current food subsidy bill of Rs 90,000 crore.
NCP chief Pawar underlined the humungous task of procurement, storage and the possibility of low farm production in a particular year that would put the government in the dock since the food law would make the promise of providing subsidized grains a legal obligation. Pawar also asked why farmers would grow wheat and rice if they received foodgrains for as low as Re 1 per kg.
Chidambaram strongly pushed for annual revision of the price of foodgrains. However, the Cabinet approved a three-year revision after some ministers warned that fixing the revision period to one year would be seen as a poll stunt.
Taking a cue from Sonia who called the food law the panacea to hunger and starvation, Congress ministers spoke eloquently about its virtues. The Centre will facilitate any move by a state to exceed the permissible quota of 5 kg/person, to be borne by the state.
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