Food security ordinance not for political benefit: Moily

The national food security ordinance is aimed at removing hunger and malnutrition and not to reap any political benefit out of it, union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily said Friday.

"Don't link the food security ordinance with an early election. The next Lok Sabha election will be held in April only as scheduled. It (food security) is to banish hunger and feed the poor at most affordable price," Moily told reporters here.

Appealing to the opposition parties not to politicise the food security issue, he said it was unfortunate that such a pro-poor initiative was sought to be derailed without giving a thought to its immense benefit to the majority of the people across the country.

"I would like to request the opposition parties not to mix politics in the passage of the food security ordinance into an act during the ensuing monsoon session of parliament as there is no other intention than to serve the needy people," Moily asserted.

President Pranab Mukherjee earlier Friday promulgated the ordinance, which aims to give right to subsidised food grains to 67 percent of the country's 1.2-billion people and ensure nutritional security.

To a related query on the Supreme Court's directive to the Election Commission to frame guidelines on promising freebies by political parties in their election manifestos, Moily said feeding the hungry was not a freebie as every citizen should have right to food.

"Feeding the hungry and poor is not a freebie. It is their birth right to have access to nutritious food," Moily said at an event, held to announce the proposed 'Udyog Mela-2013 (job fair) August 3-4 at Chikkaballapura, about 80 km from here.

Moily, who is a former Karnataka chief minister, currently represents the Chikkaballapura parliamentary constituency in the neighbouring district.