Sonia, Cong CMs meet Saturday
With the politically sensitive food security ordinance is in place, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to take the lead position in rolling out the scheme, as she has convened a meeting of chief ministers of party-ruled states on July 13 to discuss with them ways and means to implement the law.
With Delhi, which is going for Assembly polls by the yearend, being the first state to roll out the scheme on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, chief minister Sheila Dikshit held a meeting with Mrs Gandhi on Tuesday.
In Saturday’s meeting, 34 party leaders, including chief ministers of 14 Congress-ruled states, AICC general secretaries and members of Congress core group, have been invited.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and food minister K.V. Thomas will be present during the deliberations.
The idea is to ensure that the scheme is implemented in the best possible manner with Congress-ruled states becoming role models in implementation of the food security measure.
The meeting has been called days after the government rushed through an ordinance on the key measure, which is an indication that the party is keen to pull out all the stops in propagating the food security scheme that will provide right to cheap food grains to 82 crore people.
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme and the Food Security Act are being considered as major moves by Congress ahead of the 2014 general elections as was the farmers’ loan waiver scheme and NREGA announced in UPA-1.
The loan waiver and NREGA schemes were credited among other things for return of UPA to power in 2009.
Several states, including Congress-ruled Karnataka, BJP-governed Chhattisgarh, SP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and JD(U)-run Bihar, could see early rollout of the programme.
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