Food ordinance seen as accelerator

Political benefits apart, with the various elections nearing, govt gets time to properly roll out scheme by year-end

Bypassing Parliament for the time being on the national food security programme was to catalyse homework on the scheme, apart from the political benefits, say government sources.

Officials involved in the process said promulgating an ordinance in July will enable putting the law into practical effect in November-December. For, much of the work in each state remains incomplete, such as identification of eligible households and setting up of grievance redressal mechanisms.

Waiting to first complete all this would have meant a loss of political advantage, with the legislative assemblies of four states and Delhi city to have elections later this year. Political momentum related to next year's general elections would also heat up by year-end, say experts.

To give time for state governments to make all preparatory arrangements for implementation, the ordinance has introduced two new clauses from the earlier Bill, 10 and 41. The former provides six months from the date of commencement of the ordinance to a government to identify eligible households under the guidelines framed for the National Food Security Bill. States would continue to receive foodgrain under the existing Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) till such identification.

Clause 41 states existing orders, guidelines, food standards, etc, will function as on the date of commencement of the ordinance till new ones are framed.

The food ministry felt any delay in implementing the provisions could be counter-productive as any report of hunger-related deaths in any part of the country could be linked to government inaction.

Officials said the argument put forward in favour of the ordinance to implement the programme now was that some parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Andhra were affected by drought. The ordinance will enable the states to effectively handle the situation and also guarantee assured foodgrain to the people.

They also said that force-majure clause in the draft Bill has been dropped which would enable distribution of grains during natural calamities. The ordinance was also needed as current entitlements for foodgrain under the TPDS are based on the 1993-94 poverty ratio applied on the estimated population in the year 2000, when the population had just crossed a billion mark. It is now at least 200 million more.

The entitlements are being met through ad hoc allocation, which was not sufficient.