Food security Bill to see more delay as panel tenure ends

The government is unlikely to take up the National Food Security Bill in the winter season of Parliament as the panel examining the proposed law had to be reconstituted as its tenure had lapsed.

The National Food Security Bill, 2011, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by food minister KV Thomas in the winter session last year, was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee chaired by Vilas Muttemwar for approval.

The Bill envisages giving legal rights to highly subsidised grain to 63% of country's population. The parliamentary panel discussed the proposed legislation many times but could not finalise its report.

"We need to reconstitute the parliamentary panel as its tenure lapsed last month," Thomas told FE. Thomas said Congress Lok Sabh MP from Nagpur, Muttemwar, would continue to chair the panel, while new members have to be inducted into the new panel.

The Speaker of the Lok Sabha would shortly announce the names of new members. Official sources said the panel could not finalise its report due to 'lack of consensus' on basic elements. Under the proposed legislation, the government had sought to divide the targeted population under 'priority' and 'general' categories, where rice, wheat and coarse grains would be distributed at R3, R2 and R1 per kg, respectively.

The government is now considering proposals to remove categories, such as priority and general, altogether, as demanded by experts, including development economists John Dreze and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen.

Experts have suggested giving uniform legal entitlement of at least 25 kg of grain to 67% of the country's population at a fixed rate of R3/kg rice, R2/kg wheat and R1 per kg of millet. The food Bill, on the other hand, proposes 35 kg of grain to priority households (BPL families) and a minimum 15 kg for general households (APL families).

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