Stating that he is not opposed to the passage of the Food Security Bill with certain amendments, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the UPA Government should ensure that the financial burden is not passed on to the State Governments for the implementation and should give representation to one member each of the minority communities and the Other Backward Castes in the National Food Security Commission.
Kumar told mediapersons in Patna on Monday that his Government had registered its objections with the Centre on three various occasions over various proposals made in the draft of the Food Security Bill. He said that several of the State Government’s objections were considered and required amendments were made but the UPA Government has yet to take a call on these two vital issues, concerning financial burden on State Governments and representation of some caste groups in the National Food Security Commission.
The Chief Minister said that at least two women should find representation in the National Food Security Commission. He also asked the UPA Government to ensure that at least five out of seven members of the National Food Security Commission belong to the rural background.
The National Food Security Commission has already the provision of representation of at least one member each of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.
Kumar said that the UPA Government has not made clear provisions on the financial burden to be created due to implementation of the Food Security Bill and the State Governments might have to share the burden if the bill is passed in the present shape.
Earlier, Kumar had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stating that “the Bill is a Central legislation, proposed in pursuant to the Central Government’s planning and policy and therefore the Centre should bear the entire cost of the paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security from the current welfare approach to a right-based approach”.
The Chief Minister said that an individual should be considered as an unit instead of a family for the entitlement to food as the size of a family itself has reduced from 6.6 members to 3.98 members over all these decades. He also asked the UPA Government to enhance the proposed quota of 5 kg of foodgrains per person every month to 7 kg of foodgrains per month.
Kumar said that an independent BPl Commission should be constituted to identify the exact number of people living below the poverty line and also include those families in the list, who were left out in earlier administrative exercises.
To a query, he said that the Food Security Bill will not fetch any political advantage to the UPA Government in the 2014 lok Sabha election as the Bill is proposed to be passed when the Government has already entered into the last year in office.
Speaking on the Naxal issue, the Chief Minister said that the Centre should provide benefits of various welfare schemes by treating a Panchayat as an unit instead of considering district as an unit. He said that the State Government had launched a scheme ‘Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar’ way back in 2006 by treating Panchayat as an unit, producing very positive results in the Naxal-dominated areas of the State.
Stating that the Centre should allocate funds generously for executing development activities on a large-scale in the Naxal-dominated areas, the Chief Minister said that intelligence-based operations should also be carried out against Naxalites to rein in their growing activities.
He castigated the UPA Government for withdrawing two companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans from Bihar by taking an unilateral decision on this matter. He said that such a decision only created a feeling of insecurity among people living in those areas where these jawans were deployed.