Indian Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has lashed out at Congress President Sonia Gandhis dream project, namely the National Food Security Bill, which the government introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 22.
Pawar went on record as saying that there are insufficient funds to implement the Food Security Bill in its present form. However, he said This is not a question of [an] individual. This is a question of investment in agriculture.
The bill, if it became law and was fully implemented, would cost the national exchequer Rs 1.1 lakh crore ($22 billion) annually in agriculture liabilities alone, but would provide subsidized food grain to more than 60 percent of the countrys population.
Pawar had opposed the bill at a meeting of the union cabinet in December, but it was passed without discussion when it was brought before the full cabinet a week later. As Sanjay Kumar noted here last month, the draft bill is set to offer significant government subsidies for staples like rice and wheat for Indias poorest citizens, and effectively gives a legal right to food for roughly two-thirds of the countrys 1.2 billion people.
Food Bill Stumbling? | Indian Decade
Pawar went on record as saying that there are insufficient funds to implement the Food Security Bill in its present form. However, he said This is not a question of [an] individual. This is a question of investment in agriculture.
The bill, if it became law and was fully implemented, would cost the national exchequer Rs 1.1 lakh crore ($22 billion) annually in agriculture liabilities alone, but would provide subsidized food grain to more than 60 percent of the countrys population.
Pawar had opposed the bill at a meeting of the union cabinet in December, but it was passed without discussion when it was brought before the full cabinet a week later. As Sanjay Kumar noted here last month, the draft bill is set to offer significant government subsidies for staples like rice and wheat for Indias poorest citizens, and effectively gives a legal right to food for roughly two-thirds of the countrys 1.2 billion people.
Food Bill Stumbling? | Indian Decade
