Food Security Bill is dying Congresss last gamble

12th September, 2013 | www.niticentral.com

That the Food Security Bill (FSB) is solely a political tool to serve narrow electoral ends is exemplified by Sonia Gandhis rare intervention in Parliament There are people who asked whether we have the means to implement this scheme. I would like to say that we have to figure out the means. The question is not whether we can do it or not. We have to do it! Her advisers and PR machinery have been working overtime to project this as her big idea to help the poor. Unfortunately for them, hard facts ruin their high-decibel rhetoric and lay bare the truth that it is merely rehash of existing schemes packaged under a new name. Today, hundreds of millions of poor are deprived of a good education, decent healthcare and productive jobs, primarily due to the misrule of the Nehru-Gandhi clan for over 50 of the 66 years since independence. Lamentably, this family believes in mere sloganeering and never delivers. They won the 1971 election promising Garibi hatao. Forty years later, India still holds the dubious distinction of housing the most number of poor people in the world, who live handto-mouth and without a ray of hope for a better future. In a Mary Antoinette-like exhibition of insensitivity, their scion Rahul Gandhi mocked this crippling poverty as a state of mind. Food Minister KV Thomas admitted in Parliament last week that the FSB is only an agglomeration of existing schemes the Targeted Public Distribution (TPDS), Mid Day Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) etc. and the existing entitlements will continue obviously without any incremental benefits, since there is a miniscule additional financial outlay. We hear multiple numbers from the Government about the fiscal burden of the FSB, at times from the same Minister on the same day! On August 23, KV Thomas estimated the overall cost to implement the FSB at Rs 125,000 crore, of which Rs 113,000 crore would in any case be spent on the above schemes, thus implying an additional outlay of Rs 12,000 crore which translates to Rs 12 per month per person. However, he contradicted himself in another reply The additional financial burden after implementation of the NFSO is estimated to be about Rs 23,850 crore. The Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices of the Ministry of Agriculture, in stark contrast, estimates the total cost of implementing the FSB at Rs 241,000 crore. Surely, these numbers cannot all be correct simultaneously! This is a testament to the incompetence of the Government and insincerity of the Congress, which is only interested in grand posturing but flounders on basic arithmetic. As Narendra Modi pointed out in his letter to the PM, the FSB falls short of even securing a fifth of the total calories required as per National Institute of Nutrition. Moreover, it appears that most of the legwork on the implementation has been left to the States, without any meaningful consultative process. For instance, if there are lags in distribution, the responsibility of compensation is pinned on the States, without assurance of timely reimbursement by the Centre.
Article by Piyush Goyal on www.niticentral.com

The UPAs long record of ham-handed treatment of the States and underestimation of financial outlays and logistical complexities in implementation are well-known. Federalism and partnership are words that do not exist in their dictionary. The World Bank, while criticising the Centre for rampant corruption within existing TPDS (only 41 per cent reaches the targeted beneficiaries and 59 per cent vanishes on the way) has recommended the Central Government to adopt Chhattisgarhs computerised PDS as a model for implementation. Even the Supreme Court has reiterated this view. Legitimate concerns on leakages persist since the current FSB is only duplicating the existing TPDS procurement and distribution machinery. The FSB neither increases the number of beneficiaries, nor the nutrition to its beneficiaries, nor does it go beyond rice and wheat to provide dal, gram, sugar and salt like in Chattisgarh to 90 per cent of their population. Moreover, the FSB makes ostentatious claims to revitalise agriculture, ensure livelihood security to farmers, augment scientific storage, increase productivity, ensure safe and adequate drinking water and sanitation etc. Shamefully, it doesnt budget even a single rupee or lay out a time-bound roadmap for accomplishing these objectives. Can the UPA come clean on its own record, if any, on these parameters in the last nine years? The Congress cannot take the people of India for a ride via false sloganeering and tokenism any longer. Today the common man is empowered with data and information to see through this gimmickry. The BJP supports this bill to ensure that the poor continue to enjoy the benefits of the existing schemes and also promises to set things right, given an opportunity and is committed to improve the benefits to the poor and give them jobs and dignity of life.

Article by Piyush Goyal on www.niticentral.com