Food Security Bill gets Cabinet nod

After a prod by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the Cabinet on Sunday cleared the National Food Security Bill at a specially-convened meeting to table it in Parliament this week. The bill, meant to provide subsidized foodgrains to people, brought to the Cabinet by food and public distribution minister K V Thomas, was approved without a hitch in a meeting that lasted under an hour. The bill, which the UPA will table in Parliament in the hope of gaining some political dividend in the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections, seeks to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of urban population in the country. Initial estimates suggest that the food subsidy bill could be upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore. A minimum of 46% of the rural population and a minimum of 28% urban population will get 7 kg of foodgrains per month per person. Rice would be provided at Rs 3 a kg, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Rs 1 a kg. The rest of the targeted population would get 3 kg of grains per person per month at half the minimum support price offered to farmers by government during procurement. Existing nutrition and select social security schemes would also be brought under the legislation as an entitlement. After the last Cabinet meeting on Tuesday deferred the decision on the food security bill, the Congress leadership and managers had gone into overdrive to ensure that it got the nod in time to be tabled in the on-going session of Parliament. Although some important members such as NCP’s Sharad Pawar had expressed reservations over some of the proposals, sources said, given the political significance, the Cabinet went ahead with the bill. The total number of beneficiaries to be covered by the bill would depend upon the results of the delayed Socio-Economic and Caste Census currently underway. While the government had moved closer to the recommendations of Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, it has left the door open to play with the absolute numbers through the use of ‘deprivation parameters’ in the census data. The real financial outlay required for the bill would also become clear only once the government freezes the beneficiary list through the census overseen by the rural development ministry.