Main Points of Food Security Bill 2013: 1. The food security bill approved is directed towards giving the right to food to around 67 per cent of Indias 120-crore population (including 75% rural and 50% urban). 2. While families in the poorest of the poor will continue to get 35 kg of grains per month. 3. Rice will be made available at 3 Rupees per Kg. 4. Wheat will cost 2 rupees a kg and cereal will be sold for 1 Rupees per kg. 5. The Food Security programme will be the biggest in the world with the government spending estimated at Rs. 1,25,000 crore annually on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse cereals to 67 per cent of the population. 6. About 2.43 crore poorest of the poor families covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme under PDS (Public Distribution System) would continue to get 35 kg of food grains per family per month but with legal entitlement. 7. In Union Budget 2013-14, Rs 10,000 crore set aside for incremental cost for National Food Security Bill. 8. The scheme will be linked to the Aadhar scheme which provides every citizen with a unique identification number thats linked to a database that includes the biometrics of all card-holders. 9. C Rangarajan is the head of the committee for examination of the Food Security Bill. 10. NOTE: Chhattisgarh the first state to pass legislation on food security. The state legislative assembly passed the Food Security Bill 2012 that confers legal rights to the beneficiaries to receive food grains and food items at highly subsidized prices. Important Pointers on Food Security Bill: With Food Secuirty Bill being passed in Lok Sabha lets understand the important pointers related to the same. What’s the food security scheme? It provides for 5kg per person, per month, of rice, wheat or coarse grain. Proposes to cover 67% of India’s population or 82 crore people, 75% rural & 50% urban. The rates at which it will be given are 3 for rice, 2 for wheat & 1 for bajra, jowar. Cost of scheme approximately 1.3 lakh crore, up from current food subsidy bill of 75,000 crore in 2012-13. States to get one year for rollout What about existing schemes? Some schemes subsumed: Antodaya Anna Yojana (for poorest of poor), midday meals, meals for children aged 6 months-2 years with their mothers, ICDS (for kids below 6). As of now, apart from state schemes, Centre provided cheap food to around 32 crore people under BPL. This jumps to 82 crore. Govt will need to procure 62 million tonnes of grain When will the scheme roll out? There are some grey areas and missing links. States have to identify beneficiaries. This can be a problem as exclusion criteria not clear. Centre is to share transport and commission costs, which need to be worked out. Also govt admits to 20-35% leakage in PDS, which needs to be plugged. Ration cards reduced from 22 crore to 16 crore, but more needs to be done. Storage capacity needs to be augmented What’s the impact on the economy? There will be a push on govt spending which will increase current account deficit – not desirable in present situation. There are also concerns that India’s procurement for the scheme could push up world food prices in case of drought and under-procurement Does it make for great politics? So far states have cornered political benefits for cheap food grain. Now central govt will seek to gain the upper hand in this populist game. On election eve, this could help Congress
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:20:32 +0000
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