Sonia tells party CMs to ensure food law works
Setting the stage for the early rolling out of the UPA’s ambitious food security scheme, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held a meeting with chief ministers of party-ruled states and asked them the ensure that the law gets implemented in “letter and spirit”.
The Congress, however, officially announced that its “proactiveness” should not be taken in any way as an indication of early Lok Sabha elections.
The measure, seen by the party as a “game-changer” in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, was discussed threadbare as Mrs Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held deliberations with the CMs of 13 Congress-ruled states on how to implement the scheme seeking to provide cheap food grains to 82 crore people, for which an ordinance was promulgated last week.
Sources in the party said Mrs Gandhi directed the CMs to speedily implement the scheme in “letter and spirit” so that “nobody sleeps hungry”.
However, the party said its proactiveness on the issue does not mean early polls. “Don’t link this ordinance with the elections. We have been saying the issue of food security should not be looked at from the prism of politics,” AICC general secretary and communications department in-charge Ajay Maken, who was also present at the meeting, said. But the timing of the meeting gives it a different connotation as the country’s politics is experiencing a churning and every political party is in poll mood.
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