Even as Uttarakhand unit of the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday joined rhetoric of the SP high command to extend support to the Food Security Bill with some amendments, the State unit raised question over relevance of bringing such a bill in the agrarian country.
The Party State unit president Dr Satyanarayan Sachan said, “What is the need of such a bill that will put additional pressure on agrarian nation’s exchequer. We are an agrarian country where most of the people depend on agriculture for livelihood. Everybody knows that agriculture needs hard work. Passing of the bill may promote lethargy among the beneficiaries.”
Sachan has strong reason behind his apprehension. “Once the bill is passed, it would get subsidised foodgrain to a huge number of people. As a result they may turn a little lazy. Anybody would not like to work hard, if he gets food for free. Availability of the foodgrain at a highly subsidized rate may develop the tendency among the people,” Uttarakhand SP State president Dr Satyanarayan Sachan said.
Sachan, however, supported Party’s senior leaders’ move to extend support to the bill, but with some amendments. “This bill is an attack on the interest of the farmers who feed the nation by working hard in the fields. The SP has suggested around seven suggestions, including one of them: Keep the interests of the farmers’ safe,” Sachan said.
Raising a question over the bill, the SP leader asked if there was any requirement to such a bill in the agrarian nation where large section of people live in villages and earn their livelihood from agriculture. “The SP has always been first is rising issues related to the farmers and poor. When the party leadership came to know that the bill would attack the interest of the farmers, they immediately raised a voice against it. Support has been extended to the bill on the condition that suggested amendments should be made in the bill for sure,” Dr Sachan said.
Sachan also raised question over mid day meal. “In schools, education is more important. Children go there to learn something. Teachers have to spend most of their time in ensuring that the children get mid day meal. Thus, it hampers education in the school,” Dr Sachan said.
Instead of the mid day meal, there should be focus on imparting education to children, Dr Sachan said. It is worth mentioning here that the Food Security Bill, which aims to provide subsidized foodgrains to around 67 percent of the people of the county, may prove to be a game-changer for the ruling Congress in the assembly polls in the five states by end of this year and in the 2014 general elections.