Food bill should recognise panchayats' role, demands Aiyar

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar Monday demanded that the guidelines on the Food Security Bill should recognise the role of panchayats in distrubution of food grain to the beneficiaries.

Aiyar, who is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, said he supported the bill but Food Minister K.V. Thomas has done nothing so far on his suggestions to enumerate in the bill the role of panchayats in public distribution system.

Speaking on the bill during discussion in the house, Aiyar said the bill uses the term "local authority" which was a "colonial term" and contended it should have used the term "institutions of local government".

He said states such as Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, which have earned praise for their models of distributing food grain, have given role to panchayats.

The minister "must recognise" the role of panchayats while framing guidelines of the bill, he said.

The Food Security Bill aims to provide heavily subsidized food to two-thirds of India's 1.2 billion people.