The proposed Food Security Bill, which is expected to be among UPA-II’s largest welfare measures, will not set the target beneficiary group based on the Planning Commission’s new poverty benchmark, Union minister of state for food, K.V. Thomas has asserted. He said this a day after meeting UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and briefing her on the progress made so far on the proposed legislation.
Speaking to this newspaper on Sunday, Mr Thomas said that Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has already clarified this matter. The government’s assertion that the Planning Commission’s poverty parametres would not be used for deciding beneficiaries comes after the heat and dust Yojana Bhavan’s affidavit on this to the Supreme Court created in recent days.
“The government is working out a broader system to identify the people (75% of the total population), irrespective of the APL-BPL demarcation to be covered under the Bill,” Mr Thomas said. The government is also considering proposals in this regard including those of the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Mrs Gandhi which has shown keen interest in the food security law.
The minister also said that the bill will be introduced in the coming Winter Session of Parliament if responses from the state governments reach the Centre by October-end. “We have already received responses from half the total number of states. I am travelling to both food-producing states and consuming states for consultations in this regard,” he added.
On food storage, Mr. Thomas said that the government is working to set up facilities for the storage capacity of 153 lakh tonnes, apart from taking steps to modernise the already existing facilities.
He said that the wastage has been brought down from 2.5 per cent to 0.07 per cent (with in the last five years. However, he admitted that in spite of the Supreme Court order to distribute 50 lakh tonne grain to 150 poor districts in the country, the government could only deliver 4 lakh tonne so far.