Food Bill put on the backburner

Once bitten, twice shy. Fearing repeat of a recent fiasco triggered by its move to permit FDI in retail, the union cabinet on Tuesday deferred a decision on what can be called the present government’s most ambitious social welfare scheme: the Food Security Bill. For, differences continue to persist within UPA-II over the content and subsidy implications of the proposed legislation.

One major stumbling block on the path to realising ruling alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s pet project has been agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s opposition to a huge subsidy burden that the Bill would entail for the government, according to those in the know. In fact, it was not just Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party — a known baiter in this case — that threw a spanner in the works. A few Congress ministers themselves had reservations against its details, sources told Business Standard.

On his part, Pawar raised the issue of a steep cost involved in fulfilling the legal entitlements promised in the Bill. According to him, the subsidy costs run into Rs 95,000 crore.

The minister questioned the efficacy of the present delivery system, and said the states too had not done enough to roll out the scheme that promises subsidised foodgrains to almost two-third of the country’s population.

Sources say home minister P Chidambaram (of the Congress) also spoke of the same handicap. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Urban Development minister Kamal Nath, too, sought greater clarity on the finer aspects of the Bill.

The UPA’s biggest ally, Trinamool Congress, also seemed not convinced with many provisions of the Bill. Enacting the Bill is expected to swell the food subsidy to over Rs one lakh-crore from the current Rs 60,000 crore.

The proposed legislation seeks to provide legal entitlement for grains to three-fourth of the rural population and half of urban population. The Bill was earlier scheduled to be discussed tomorrow. It was advanced by a day on the insistence of food minister K V Thomas, who wanted to present it in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

On July 12, the draft food security Bill was cleared by an empowered group of ministers. After that, too, it underwent some key changes — such as the inclusion of a provision to distribute an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to all pregnant and lactating women, in addition to cheap grains (this, at the initiative of Gandhi).

Last week, the government put off its decision to go for up to 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, after some of the UPA allies as well as the opposition parties animatedly rallied against the move.