Food Bill may be tabled in House today

The National Food Security Bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament today, after being cleared by the Cabinet earlier this week.

The Bill has said that it will be responsibility of the central government to provide assistance to the states in meeting the expenditure incurred by the latter in intra-state movement of grains, handling of foodgrains and margins paid to fair price shop dealers.

The Bill lays down that the National Food Security Act won’t stop any state government from formulating or continuing with other food-based welfare schemes.

The sale price of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Re 1 for coarse cereals will be revised every three years, but it would not be more than the then prevailing Minimum Support Price of wheat and coarse cereals and derived minimum support price for rice.

In a move towards women’s empowerment, the Bill lays down that eldest woman of a household, who is not less than 18 years, would considered as head of the family for the purpose of issue of ration cards.

Officials said the Bill has made provision that state governments would have to pay an allowance to the beneficiaries in case they fail to provide foodgrains under the law.  

Poor children up to the age of six years will get free meals. Officials said though the Bill does not make modernization of PDS mandatory for implementing the Bill, but has laid stress on reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) for effective implementation of the scheme