Caution Centre against trying to rush the new measure through Parliament

Even as the Centre hopes to introduce and pass the National Food Security Bill in the coming Budget session of Parliament, several States have expressed reservations on the Bill. At a consultation meeting of State Food Ministers here to evolve a consensus on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to which the government Bill was referred on Wednesday, many States differed on crucial provisions, particularly the ones relating to identification of beneficiaries, sustained availability of grains, proposed cut in individual entitlement and additional expenses to be borne by them.

Revised bill likely to be tabled in the Budget session of Parliament

If all things fall according to plan, the UPA-2’s most ambitious social security programme--the National Food Security Bill--could include more people than the earlier proposed 67% of the India's population. The revised bill is likely to be tabled in the Budget session of Parliament, slated to begin later this month.
The Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) --targeted towards the poorest of the poor-- which was launched by the NDA government in December 2000, is likely to be retained in the final version of the bill.

Bill Will Be Reintroduced In Parliament In Budget Session, Says MoS K V Thomas

Kochi: The Centre is in broad agreement with the suggestions of the parliamentary panel on food, which has just submitted its report on the much-debated food security bill, said minister of state for food and civil supplies K V Thomas. “The panel has come up with a near unanimous report, barring a dissent from the CPM member. Many of the suggestions made by the panel were already there in the ‘plan B’, being considered by the government to proceed with the bill,” the minister told TOI here.

New Delhi: Says direct cash transfer in lieu of grain currently not desirable

A Parliamentary panel on the food security Bill has suggested providing legal entitlement of 5 kg of heavily-subsidised grain to each beneficiary per month, which would cover 67% of the country's population. The Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, headed by Vilas Muttemwar, also said the direct cash transfer in lieu of grain entitlements at this juncture may not be desirable, suggesting that banking infrastructure and accessibility to banking facility need to be made available throughout India before introducing the cash transfer.

The parliamentary panel reviewing the National Food Security Bill, 2011, is understood have recommended that states should be allowed to prescribe guidelines for identification of 'priority' and 'general' households for subsidised foodgrains.

The panel chaired by Lok Sabha MP Vilas Muttemwar has also asked the government to devise a clearly defined criteria in consultation with the states to identify those outside the ambit of the scheme, seeking to expand the scope of existing public distribution system.

Chances of the food security Bill becoming a law in the near future have dimmed with Parliament’s standing committee on food not submitting its recommendations in the winter session, which ended on Thursday.

“There is no possibility of submitting the report in the winter session of Parliament, as all the evidences are not yet ready with us,” Vilas Muttemwar, chairman of the committee, said.

The UPA government’s food security bill will take more time for enactment as the parliamentary standing committee on food has expressed its inability to submit report in the current session.

The parliamentary standing committee on food is giving a final shape to the UPA-II government’s ambitious Food Security Bill.

New Delhi Differences have cropped up between the Planning Commission and food ministry on the issue of creation of two million tonne capacity silos through the public- private partnership (PPP) mode.

Sources say while Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency to implement the project, has been insisting on making 'railway siding' mandatory for silos, the Planning Commission believes that the construction of railways siding would increase the cost of project which would be unattractive to the private players.

New Delhi In a bid to check diversion of foodgrains to the open market, the food ministry is planning to launch a cash transfer system for poor families. The plan, a first, will be done under the public distribution system (PDS) in six union territories in the next three months.

Officials sources told FE the cash transfer plan under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) would be launched for the first time in Chandigarh, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.