NAC heading for confrontation with PM’s panel

Heading for further confrontation with Prime Minister’s Office, Sonia Gandhi headed National Advisory Council will soon issue a paper to counter the PM’s Expert Committee’s claim that its proposed National Food Security law cannot be implemented.

Updated on: Jan 21, 2011, 23:35:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Heading for further confrontation with Prime Minister’s Office, Sonia Gandhi headed National Advisory Council will soon issue a paper to counter the PM’s Expert Committee’s claim that its proposed National Food Security law cannot be implemented.

In its first indication of the confrontation, the NAC on Friday issued a draft of the proposed food security law as per its recommendations to the government in October 2010 to cover 75 % of the country’s population – 90 % in rural parts and atleast 50 % in urban areas.

The committee headed by C Rangarajan, head of PM Economic Advisory Council, had rejected the NAC recommendations saying they were not feasible considering projected food availability and large subsidy implications (of Rs 92,000 crore).

It instead suggested that the proposed law should cover only new below poverty line population of 46 % in rural areas and 28 % in urban areas as recommended by Tendulkar Committee.

“NAC is sticking to its 23 October recommendation,” said council member Narendra Jhadav, while confirming that the committee’s recommendations were discussed. The government has, however, not sent the committee’s report to NAC.

Most of the NAC members criticized the committee’s recommendation saying it indicated the government unwillingness to provide a broad food security cover to Indians and termed NAC recommendations as “realistic”.

“If the government can give relief to thousands of crores of rupees to the industry why a similar money is not being provided for nutritional security of the country,” a NAC member said, who was not willing to be quoted.

Some members also circulated a critique of the committee’s recommendation at the meeting, which will now be considered by NAC’s working group to prepare an analytical report to be discussed at the council’s next meeting on February 26.

The council’s draft law proposes a public distribution system (PDS) where vulnerable in the priority category will get 35 kg of food grains every month at a maximum price of Rs three per kg. For the general category the price proposed is half of maximum support price for entitlement of 20 kg per month.

It also says the PDS shops will be managed by community committees instead of government officials. Instead of the Central government, the state governments will be encouraged to procure food grains for PDS, the proposed law says.

The NAC also aims to bring food entitlement schemes such as Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), midday meal, nutrition take home rations for children under three and lactating mothers and maternity entitlements of Rs 1,000 month for six months fro pregnant mothers within the ambit of the law.

The council also decided to ask the government to ensure that all in the priority category and all scheduled caste and scheduled tribes should be included in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) census.

The council also of the view that the government’s proposed Right to Information (RTI) rules will dilute the RTI rules.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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