The ambitious Food Security Bill of the UPA government was on Tuesday deferred by the Cabinet, apparently spooked by the huge financial commitment it entailed. With every economic indicator plummeting and the GDP growth rate for 2012-13 expected to be only about 6%, it was decided to hold further consultations with the allies on the Bill, which has a projected government outlay of R93,000 crore.
But pushed to a corner by the Opposition parties inside Parliament and Team Anna outside, the government cleared other key Bills like those regarding judicial accountability, the citizen?s charter and whistleblowers? protection. The passage of these Bills is expected to give the government an opportunity to present itself as an anti-corruption entity when it holds an all-party meet on the Lokpal Bill on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also approved the setting up of a National Electricity Fund to provide interest subsidy aggregating to R8,466 crore for a period of 14 years to finance projects in the electricity distribution sector. The scheme is to become operational within a year.
The proposed legislations will strengthen the anti-graft measures of the government and public sector companies. The three Bills are expected to be tabled in Parliament in the current session, which ends on December 22. The Food Security Bill is unlikely to be introduced in the current Parliament session.
A minister who attended the meeting confirmed that the financial implications have stalled the Bill.
Food minister KV Thomas had been trying to introduce the Bill in the current session of Parliament but found strong opposition from the agriculture ministry too.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar argued that the huge scale of government procurement will stamp out foodgrain trade in the country, putting stiff pressure on farmers.
?The discussion on the Bill remained inconclusive. We are trying our best to introduce it in this session,? Thomas told reporters after the Cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
As reported by FE, several state governments including those ruled by the Congress party 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?. Chief minister Nitish Kumar in a letter to Thomas also observed that those states that have major incidence of poverty ?are the very states which are also facing an acute financial crunch?.
The food Bill planned to provide 75% of the rural households with subsidised grain. Within that, every person in a household declared as priority ones will get 7 kg of grain a month at Rs 3 per kg for rice and Rs 2 for wheat.
In the 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 have already set a Rs 1 a kg price for rice.
Under the Judicial Accountability Bill, judges will have to declare their assets and liabilities, including that of their spouse and children.
The Bill sets up of a national judicial oversight committee,
a complaints scrutiny panel and an investigation committee to empower any person to file a complaint against a judge. A motion can be moved in Parliament for the removal of a judge, which will then go to the oversight committee.
In the Citizens’ Grievance Redressal Bill, every citizen will have a right to time-bound delivery of goods and provisions for services and redressal of grievances. Every public authority will have to publish a citizen’s charter specifying the category of goods supplied and services rendered by it.
The Whistleblowers Bill has provisions to punish those who reveal the identity of a whistleblower with a three-year jail term or a fine of up to Rs 50,000.
It will hold the department head liable if the whistleblower’s identity is revealed. However, a false complaint will make the person liable to punishment with equal amount of prison time and fine.