The Congress will roll out its flagship ambitious food security scheme in the states it rules from August 20,the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The decision for an early rollout of the Food Security Bill in was taken after a meeting of party chief ministers called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Gandhi asked the states ruled by the party to implement in "letter and spirit" the food security scheme which it sees as a "game changer" in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. She held deliberations with Congress Chief Ministers on how to implement the food scheme seeking to provide cheap foodgrains to 82 crore people,for which an ordinance was promulgated last week. Party sources said the CMs were told at the meeting to rollout the scheme in "letter and spirit". The meeting was held at a time when the party is preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and is keen to reach out to the people with its populist measure. As many as 34 party leaders,including chief ministers of 14 Congress-ruled states,AICC general secretaries and members of Congress Core Group,were invited for the meeting. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,party Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Food Minister K V Thomas were also present during the deliberations. Delhi will be the first state to roll out the scheme on August 20. The Congress hopes to highlight the benefits under the scheme in the run up to the Assembly elections slated for November this year,and maintain the momentum for the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Sheila Dikshit's government expects to cover over five lakh families under the Centres food security scheme in the first phase of implementation. Dikshit had chaired a meeting on the schemes implementation on Thursday,with all relevant departments,to finalise the modalities and identify the schemes beneficiaries. The meeting on Saturday was 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 foodgrains to 82 crore people. (with PTI inputs)
