NCP supports ordinance route for food security scheme

This is a complete U-turn in party's earlier stand of favouring parliamentary discussion instead of an ordinance

The ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a key ally of the UPA, on Thursday extended its full support to the government’s move to issue an ordinance on food security Bill which envisages nation’s two-third population the right to get five kg of foodgrains every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg.

This is a complete u-turn in the party’s earlier stand of favouring parliamentary discussion instead of an ordinance route for such a crucial decision.

NCP’s Maharashtra unit spokesman Nawab Malik clarified that his party president Sharad Pawar or the party in general had never opposed the food security Bill but had insisted that the decision be taken after a comprehensive deliberations.

“Now the Union Cabinet has approved the ordinance on food security Bill. It is a collective decision. Our two key ministers, Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, are in the Cabinet. We wholeheartedly support its decision,” he noted.

Malik admitted that Pawar had recently announced that he would prefer it to be approved by Parliament after a debate. However, neither Pawar nor NCP were against providing foodgrains to those deserving at a concessional rate.

To a question whether NCP’s support to the ordinance route was in exchange of party receiving the state government’s post, Malik replied in the negative. It was a coincident that on Wednesday when the Union Cabinet approved ordinance route for food security Bill, NCP’s former MP and Pawar’s close confidant Srinivas Patil was appointed as the Sikkim Governor.