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After the rural job guarantee programme, Congress President Sonia Gandhi is now focusing on an ambitious National Food Security Act aimed at drawing more people into the food security net
Congress President and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh making a strong pitch for providing 35 kg of cereal at Rs 3 per kg every month to the poor of this country. In a letter dated June 12, 2009 -- perhaps the first she has written to the prime minister after the UPA, headed by her, came to power for a second time in a row last month -- Gandhi has asked Singh to fulfil the party’s poll promise of enacting such a law, and has even provided the broad outlines of the proposed legislation. “One of the most important commitments made by our party in the Lok Sabha election manifesto relates to the enactment of a National Food Security Act to ensure food security to the poor and vulnerable sections of society. I am sending a copy of the draft legislation for your consideration,” the letter states. Congress sources say that Sonia Gandhi is convinced that if the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the Right to Information Act were the high points of the UPA’s social programmes during its first tenure, food security will be the hallmark of its second term. The rural job scheme and the information Act were conceived and piloted by the National Advisory Council (NAC), which Gandhi headed. “It took two to three years to put the NREGA in place. It will take as much time for the food security scheme to get going properly. So there is no problem with doing the spadework right away,” a party source said. The draft Right to Food (Guarantee of Safety and Security) Act enshrines freedom from hunger and malnutrition as a fundamental right. It “provides for and asserts the physical, economic and social right of all citizens to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with an adequate diet necessary to lead an active and healthy life with dignity”. Some of the salient features of the draft law are: - Besides families living below the poverty line (BPL), a wide variety of other beneficiaries will also be provided 35 kg of cereal every month at Rs 3 per kg.
- The list includes households headed by single women, those suffering from leprosy, HIV and mental illness, bonded labour, destitutes dependent on alms for survival for 20 days a month, landless agricultural workers and self-employed artisans.
- Other suggested beneficiaries are “occasionally vulnerable” rag-pickers, construction workers, street vendors, rickshaw-pullers, domestic workers and those already covered by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana.
- A national survey will be conducted every five years to identify recipients who will be issued photo ID cards in consultation with local bodies.
- Senior citizens, single women and physically challenged persons can eat at Integrated Child Development Scheme centres or during midday meals at schools.
- Families affected by natural disasters and communal violence will also get 35 kg of cereal at Rs 3.
- Double food quota (70kg) for BPL households that have children below six years of age, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The draft law explains ways to implement the scheme and prescribes penalties for flawed delivery. While the state has to ensure uninterrupted supply of foodgrain through the public distribution system (PDS), vigil on distribution will be through quarterly meetings between shop owners and representatives of local bodies who will be involved in the selection of the shop owner. States will have to fully computerise their PDS within two years of the law and they “shall provide a toll-free number and a website where consumers can register their complaints. All complaints shall be addressed within 39 days of receipt and records of the same shall be made available in the public domain, including the Internet,” says the draft. A commissioner will be appointed in each state to monitor the scheme, suggest changes in it, investigate scarcities, and award penalties to public servants for failures. The penalties could be a fine of gross salary of one month up to five years for negligence, or imprisonment of six months to five years in case of “deaths or serious morbidity”. The Manmohan Singh government is expected to earmark over Rs 50,000 crore for the right to food programme in the coming budget. Though details of the programme’s rollout are yet to be firmed up, the government does not foresee any major hurdles in implementing the scheme. Government sources say the Bill could come up during the winter session of Parliament. Keeping in mind substantial layoffs in select sectors, in the wake of the global economic crisis, the government is expected to expand the scope of the programme to include sectors such as textiles as well as large sections of agricultural labour impacted by volatilities in the food sector. Under the public distribution system, the BPL category excludes large sections of the poor, including 52% of agricultural labour households. At present, food stocks with the government are upward of 50 million tonnes, more than twice the storage capacity of the Food Corporation of India, on the back of high rice procurement (30.65 million tonnes) and a record wheat buy (over 24.7 million tonnes). The need for subsidised foodgrain for a wider section of people is also reflected in increased offtake. While the offtake in the Antyodaya system is around 90%, showing people’s desperate need for cheap foodgrain, the offtake for BPL families increased from 7.367 million tonnes to 22.845 million tonnes in 2005-06, out of an allocation of 27.32 million tonnes. As far as above the poverty line (APL) families is concerned, the offtake is much lower, not because people do not need the grain but because for several years there was not much difference in the APL price and the market price. For the first time, the onus of identification and, more crucially, delivery of grain to consumers could be pinned on panchayats in rural areas and local governments in urban areas, entailing never-before accountability on records of allocation and offtake of grain. A seamless marriage of current realities and provisions in the proposed legislation would also mean smoothing out existing wrinkles in foodgrain availability and accessibility, say government officials. Source: The Economic Times, June 26, 2009
The Indian Express, June 25, 2009
The Telegraph, June 25, 2009
PTI, June 24, 2009
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