18 states to get extra grain allocation

The Cabinet on Thursday cleared an amendment to the National Food Security Ordinance (NFSO) that will ensure 18 states get 3.1 million tonnes more foodgrain than proposed earlier at the Above-Poverty-Line (APL) price.

The states would get extra rice at Rs 8.30 a kg and wheat at Rs 6.10 a kg. The additional subsidy burden because of the allocation is expected to be Rs 5,094 crore, bloating the food subsidy bill to almost Rs 1,30,000 crore. A senior official said suggestions from the finance ministry that extra grains to "losing" states be given at the minimum support price-derived cost were shot down by the Prime Minister.
 

Manmohan Singh. Food Bill would now require around 60 million tonnes of grains against the earlier 50-55 million tonnes, not including food distributed through other welfare schemes.

OTHER DECISIONS

• Approval to Bill replacing collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts with a Judicial Appointments Commission
• Nod to proposals that will allow people in jail to contest polls
• Convicted MPs and MLAs can retain membership till pendency of appeal, while being barred from voting and drawing salary

A senior official said this would mean that states whose annual allocation of foodgrain was getting reduced by 1.2 million tonnes, according to the ordinance, would get the extra grains. "The Bill will now be put up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Saturday," the official said.

The amendments in the food Bill would ensure that no state gets less grains than now. The Bill in its present form provided for grains based on the offtake by states in the last three years. This would have deprived many states, mainly the southern ones and Odisha, of a large chunk of allocations

According to the unamended Bill, the total allocation would have been 51.83 million tonnes, against the annual offtake of 43.08 million tonnes. In this scheme of affairs, Uttar pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal, among others, were the big gainers.

But Tamil Nadu would have lost 1.21 million tonnes, Kerala would have lost 0.43 million tonnes.

OTHER DECISIONS
n Approval to Bill replacing collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts with a Judicial Appointments Commission
n Nod to proposals that will allow people in jail to contest polls
n Convicted MPs and MLAs can retain membership till pendency of appeal, while being barred from voting and drawing salary