Officials of the food, agriculture and finance ministries will meet the state and central ministers concerned in a bid to thrash out objections raised by the states over the proposed Food Security Bill. The two-day conference that begins on Wednesday will also take up the creation of additional infrastructure for grain storage.
Enhancement of grain storage capacities at the state levels from the current 55 million tonne (mt) to around 65 mt for meeting the requirements of the proposed food law and elimination of bogus ration cards from to reduce pilferage and modernisation of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) would be key issues that would discussed at the national conference.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, food minister KV Thomas and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani will be the key participants in the conference.
Official sources told FE that the conference assumes importance as many states have opposed the provisions of the Food Security Bill as it would put a ?huge financial burden on the states? economic health?.
Terming the Bill as ?unilaterally imposed and a substantial financial burden on the state government?, Bihar?s chief minister Nitish Kumar in a letter to Union food minister Thomas last year had observed: ?It must be remembered that those states having a major incidence of poverty are the very states which are also facing an acute financial crunch.? Even Congress-ruled states such as Kerala and Rajasthan had expressed apprehensions about the provision of the Bill. ?We need to discuss all the issues associated with the implementation of the food security law with the state governments for removing any misgiving,? a food ministry official said.
With agriculture minister Pawar expressing apprehension on the financial viability of the proposed law, the meeting would also deliberate on reducing the number of bogus ration cards to prevent leakage.
?Through the modernisation drive of TPDS, we would soon bring down the number of people with BPL (below poverty line) cards to 17 crore from the existing 20 crore,? Thomas told FE.
In a recent pre-Budget meeting with Mukherjee, Thomas had conveyed the measures being taken by the food ministry to reduce wastage and pilferage. Thomas said the food subsidy bill for the current year is estimated to be R63,000 crore. In Budget 2011-12, the government had estimated the bill to be around R60,000 crore.