Political considerations weighed heavily on the minds of a reluctant Opposition, which allowed passage of the much-hyped Food Security Bill of the UPA on Monday. The Bill was passed with a voice vote, with the lone opposition coming from the AIADMK.
The Samajwadi Party, which had earlier refused to support the Bill if changes suggested by it were not incorporated, did not press for amendments and voted in favour. The Bill was passed around 10.45 pm after amendments moved by BJP and other Opposition parties got defeated one by one.
“It would have been better if our amendments were incorporated. Even then we support this Bill, which is not complete in itself. We will wait and when we come (to power), we will implement an improved version of the scheme,” leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said before the Bill was taken up for vote. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were not in lok Sabha at the time of the vote, as she took ill and was rushed to AIIMS.
The proposed legislation pegs food grain requirement at 62 million tons and total expenditure of about 1.25 lakh crore in 2013-14 to provide 5 kg of food grain per month to 75 per cent and 50 per cent of rural and urban population, respectively. The move is seen as a last ditch effort by a corruption-marred and inflation-hit UPA to retain power in next year’s general elections.
Aware of the potential damage that opposing such a populist move could result in, most of the Opposition parties supported it, but they did not mince words in criticising its lacunae.
During the six-hour-long debate in the lower House, Opposition leaders and even UPA supporters flagged issues like ambiguity over BPl population, lack of clarity over ways and mean to gather resources, absence of provisions to strengthen PDS, exclusion of a major section of population from the list of beneficiaries, quantum of food grain provided, lack of nutritional value, financial burden on States and many more.
Initiating the debate after Food Minister KV Thomas took up the Bill, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi dished out interesting facts and figures and quoted extensively from the Government’s own reports to expose loopholes in the proposed Food Security legislation, which he described as a “vote securing bill” for the Congress.
Maintaining that the benefits would not reach the actual number of poor and would be without nutritional security, the former Union Minister alleged the Government’s Bill was totally silent on how it would rake up over Rs 1.23 lakh crore to fund the proposed Bill.
Joshi pointed out that the then President Pratibha Patil in her address to the joint session of Parliament in 2009 claimed the Food Bill would benefit ‘all’. “Now they intend to provide coverage to 75 per cent of the rural population and half of urban population. Instead of apologising to nation for not being able to provide universal food security, they are patting their back for the half-hearted effort,” Joshi charged.
He also questioned the Government’s intention to provide ‘adequate’ food to the beneficiaries. “How do you define the term adequate foodIJ Will it be based on purchasing power, calorie consumed or nutritional value of the foodIJ” he asked.
Joshi also quoted reports to suggest that average consumption of food grain per person per month ranges between 10 to 13 kg, which was almost double of what the UPA’s Bill proposed.
He also wondered how the food was going to reach actual beneficiaries when there was dispute over poverty figures. Pointing out that the Arjun Sengupta Committee had suggested that poor consists of more than 50 per cent of the total population, he said the Government ‘manipulated’ it to bring down the figure to 35 per cent.
“You are not presenting the real picture before the Parliament. We are ready to support you in all genuine efforts, and not those motivated by political interest. I would suggest you send the Bill to the Standing Committee again and bring it to the House after due consultation only,” Joshi said.
The BJP leader also sought to know from the Government why it was not following the Chhattisgarh model of reviving the PDS and Tamil Nadu model of universal coverage. He also feared that multi-national giant and big contractors would enter the system in the name of providing fortified food, provisions about which have been made in the Bill.
“You have proposed that cooked food would be delivered to beneficiaries at home. Do you have a mechanism in placeIJ Will there be a branch in the PDS to take care of thisIJ” he asked. Joshi also invoked federalism to question the Government’s intention to keep with itself the right to identify how many people would be benefited with the scheme in each State.
Joshi also sought to know how the Government would meet the demand of food grains when nearly 2500 marginal farmers were quitting agriculture on a daily basis.
The Government, however, sought to take Opposition parties on board in proposing food grain supplies to States would not be reduced with the implementation of the Food Security Bill. “The price would also be maintained at the same existing levels,” he said.
Allaying fears expressed during the debate on the Bill, KV Thomas said: “We are not going to freeze the MSPs...Whatever food grain comes to mandis” will be procured.
Referring to queries on the storage capacity in the country, Thomas said it has increased to 75 million tons from 55 MT and will go up to 85 MT by 2014-15. He said duplication and leakages have been checked as the number of ration card holders has come down to 16 crore from 22 crore in the last four years. The Minister said damages and losses during procurement has come down to 0.07 per cent from 2.5 per cent five years ago.