After the Cabinet deferred a decision on the National Food Security Bill, 2011, on Tuesday due to lack of consensus on the issue, food minister KV Thomas on Wednesday said the Cabinet may discuss the proposed legislation on Sunday.

?A special Cabinet meeting is scheduled for Sunday, where we will discuss the matter. The discussions have to take place threadbare,” Thomas told reporters after inaugurating a conference of food ministers, food secretaries and agriculture secretaries of emerging procuring states.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, however, said that since lot of states, including a few UPA-ruled, have opposed the Bill, the government needs to discuss the Bill in next eight to 10 days.

?The government is committed to bring the food Bill. It’s a serious issue. Its implementation is a big responsibility for the state governments. We will take a decision here, but the state governments would be the one to implement it,? Pawar noted.

As reported by FE earlier, several state governments including those ruled by the Congress have complained to the food ministry about the negative impact of the Bill on their already-stretched finances.

Bihar, for instance, has termed the Bill as ?unilaterally imposed, creating a substantial financial burden on the state government?.

Kerala, which has a Congress-led government, had also raised apprehensions about the likely financial burden on the state from the food security law. ?The expenditure would make a serious dent on the state?s finances and can make the implementation of food security Bill unviable,? food, civil supplies and consumer affairs secretary of Kerala T K Manoj Kumar had said. West Bengal has also endorsed the stand taken by the Kerala government.

The food Bill aims to provide 75% of the rural households with subsidised grains. Of these, ?at least? 46% households would be considered as ?priority? category and each person in these households will get 7 kg of grain a month at subsidised rates ? R2 for a kg of rice, R3 for wheat and R1 for coarse grains.

In urban centres, of 50% of the total households to be covered under the food Act, ?at least? 28 per cent would get ?priority? status. The priority households in the urban areas would get ‘at least’ 3 kg of subsidised grains per person per month

At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, some of the ministers also pointed out that states like Tamil Nadu and Orissa will find the Bill impossible to roll out as they already have set a R1 a kg price for rice.