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According to those in the know of the development, the Cabinet note on the Ordinance had already been issued. However, when the item came up in the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth said "deferred".
Evidently, the disagreements over the Bill — a pet project of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi — had surfaced before the Cabinet meeting and it was decided to postpone it. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is among those opposed to the Ordinance route for the Bill.
The Ordinance was to be tabled in the Cabinet last week, but it did not even find a mention in the meeting then.
The ruling UPA coalition, however, kept an option of the Ordinance open, while also announcing that four of its ministers — Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Food Minister K V Thomas — will evolve a consensus among political parties to convene a special session of Parliament to take up NFSB. The Bill is pending in Parliament and could not be taken up due to pandemonium over various scams in the previous session.
As the UPA talked about building a consensus, Gujarat chief minister and head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll panel Narendra Modi, accused the Centre of adding to the suffering of the common man, who is already paying hefty prices for food. He wrote on Twitter, “The Congress government at Delhi (Centre) is rubbing salt on the wounds of people battling with price hike.”
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Chidambaram said if the support from the Opposition parties is "forthcoming", then the food Bill will be passed in a special session of Parliament.
“Based on the response of the main Opposition, we will have to take a view. Our intention is to get it passed in a special session of Parliament, and we are making one more effort to ask the Opposition parties to support us," the FM added.
Thomas said the proposal for Ordinance is still with the Cabinet. “We are deferring the decision on Ordinance, but it is not withdrawal.”
We will start the discussion with all the political parties (on food Bill) and if they are willing to cooperate, then will have a special Parliament session.”
Yesterday, Thomas had said all UPA allies, including NCP, are on board and there was a consensus on issuing an ordinance.
In its latest avatar, the Bill promises legal entitlement for subsidised food to 800-840 million Indians, out of a total estimated population of 1.2 billion.
The Bill, which has undergone numerous changes ever since it was first tabled in Parliament on December 2011, will provide five kg of wheat, rice or coarse cereals per person every month at Rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 1 a kg for coarse cereals.
Besides, the Bill will provide legal entitlement for subsidised grains or allowance to a host of other sections of the population such as pregnant women, children and also the poorest among the poor households, who would get 35 kg of grains per month at a discounted price.
The Bill will require an annual food subsidy of Rs 1.31 lakh crore, which includes Rs 8,000 crore for other incidental expenditure such as setting up national and state-level food commissions and grievance redressal mechanisms.
In the 2013-14 Union Budget, the government allocated Rs 90,000 crore as food subsidy, of which Rs 10,000 crore was solely on account of the food Bill.
The subsidy burden is expected to escalate as and when the Bill is implemented across the country. This may also be due to the fact that the minimum support price of wheat and rice will have to increase, in order to provide remunerative price to farmers, while the sale price will be much lower and flat for at least three years.
<b>Sonia meets PM for discussion</b>
With the food security Bill being postponed by the Union Cabinet on Thursday morning, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with the Prime Minister in the evening assumed significance.
However, sources indicated the meeting could also relate to an impending reshuffle of ministers. Some suggested the Bill could also have figured in the discussion.
A Cabinet rejig is certain, after the resignations of Pawan Bansal and Ashwani Kumar. Their portfolios have, for now, been given as an additional charge to C P Joshi and Kapil Sibal, respectively.
The PM had indicated to reporters last month that a reshuffle was in the works. "There are some vacancies. The issue of filling these is being considered," he’d said.
Apart from these portfolios, several posts of ministers of state are vacant after the withdrawal of alliance partners DMK and TMC.
On an Ordinance route, Congress party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said, “All routes are still open.”
Ahead of the Cabinet meeting to take up the Ordinance for the Bill, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar met the Prime Minister and is believed to have insisted that such a significant legislation should not be hustled through. The Prime Minister also held separate discussions Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Food Minister K V Thomas on the desirability of the Ordinance.
