Ordinance route for Food Sec Bill runs into Opposition fire

The government's decision on Wednesday to promulgate an ordinance to give 70 percent of the nation's population a uniform quantity of 5 kg foodgrain at a fixed price of Rs 1-3 per kg has met with opposition from all fronts.

Opposition parties attacked the government for resorting to the ordinance route to implement the Food Security Bill. They feel the government is using this route to run away from debate. The Cabinet had deferred a decision on the issue in June. D Raja, senior leader, CPI, says, "We want a legislation, and the Food Security Bill that is before the Parliament in its present form with its present content is not acceptable to us." Political parties from various states are of the view that this should be debated in Parliament. Nirmala Sitaraman, spokesperson, BJP, says, "A couple of weeks ago, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had very clearly said that we are interested in debating this." They feel that the fact that the Congress has brought it out in the last 100 days of their governance clearly shows that they are doing it to gain political mileage. Kamal Farooqi, spokesperson, Samajwadi Party agrees. "What is the hurry for the Congress to bring in a kind of notification? Financially there would be a burden of about Rs 1.35 lakh crore on the government, from where that money will come? Even today they are not in a position to streamline the public distribution system (PDS). " Other experts support this view. Biraj Patnaik, principal adviser to the Commissioners of Supreme Court on the Right to Food is of the opinion that there was no opposition to the Bill, and the government has introduced the ordinance with the objective of putting the opposition on the back foot. "Fundamentally, there was no opposing the Bill barring a few members as you mentioned. All that the BJP wanted and other opposition parties wanted was to strengthen the nature of the bill, to introduce amendments that would have extended this bill to other sections of society, to make it more inclusive, to bring in better grievance redressal mechanism and so on," he says. Anuradha Talwar, campaigner, Right to Food shares his point of view. "The objections were basically to the kind of bill that was coming. There were objections about the quantities being reduced. There were also objections to the fact that farmers were being totally shot out from the bill. So, this is basically a shortcut. The government is trying to score brownie points," says Talwar. The ordinance remains in force until it is replaced with a permanent law by Parliament. This must be passed within six weeks of the start of Parliament’s next session, otherwise the order lapses. The next session of Parliament is expected in three weeks. KV Thomas, food minister says, "It will now go to the Rahstrapati Bhavan for the President’s assent." In an interview to CNBC-TV18, BJP national treasurer Piyush Goyal said that the party supports the concept of subsidised food grains but adds that the Food Security Bill is flawed. "The ordinance has no measures for food security during natural calamities and the Bill in its present form is impractical and I suspect the Bill won't be passed by Parliament. The government should have held wider consultations and provided adequate funds. The Food Bill is intended to fool the people," he told CNBC-TV18. Goyal added that Rs 50,000 crore was enough to implement the Food Security Bill.