Friday, September 24, 2010

No money for food security in this Plan

NEW DELHI: THe Planning Commission has expressed inability to provide funds for implementing the National Food Security Act in the final lap of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, arguing that doing so would mean it will have to divert funds from existing schemes.



Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in his presentation before the National Advisory Council (NAC) here on Friday, proposed the rollout of the scheme from the beginning of the 12th Five Year Plan, which gets underway in April, 2012.



"Ideas evolving here should be integrated with the 12th Five Year Plan so that we could earmark funds for the right to food scheme," Mr Ahluwalia is learnt to have told the NAC during the course of the interaction.



While the draft National Food Security Bill is likely to be prepared during the next meeting of NAC, which is scheduled to be held on October 23, members on Friday decided to go in for universal coverage of the scheme. It means that "there'll be common, but differentiated entitlements, for every section of the society."



The society, it was decided, will be divided into three broad groups —AAY /BPL, APL and the extremely vulnerable sections such as HIVAIDS patients, the old and the homeless, infirm, destitute and street children. While all the three groups require physical access, the AAY and BPL categories do not have economic access to food.



It was, therefore, felt that they must be provided food and nutritional security at a "reasonable cost," something which could be within their means. The APL category people could be provided food at a higher cost.



NAC, which met here under the chairpersonship of Ms Sonia Gandhi, was given a detailed presentation by Mr Harsh Mander, who heads the working group set up to finalise the bill's framework. The meeting was attended by food and public distribution secretary Alka Sirohi , women and child development secretary DK Sikri and housing and poverty alleviation secretary Kiran Dhingra. The three senior government functionaries also offered their views on the food security proposal.



The Planning Commission deputy chairman, according to a member, gave a detailed account of what could be possible with the available resources. He reeled out a list of centrally-sponsored schemes which were already being implemented, and spoke about the need to factor in the cost of executing the scheme. "We should be conscious of the kind of funds that are available with us," he's learnt to have said.



Mr Ahluwalia, during the course of his discussion, highlighted the problems of rolling out the National Food Security Act during the remaining part of the 11th Five Year Plan, which draws to a close in 2012. "Implementing it now will mean we'll have to cut funds from the existing social schemes to finance the food security net," he's reported to have said.



The Planning Commission deputy chairman also emphasised the need to minimise corruption in the distribution of grain under various schemes, and highlighted the importance of technology. Devices such as smart cards could play an important role in reducing corruption, he said. The food and public distribution secretary, in her presentation, spoke about the food availability scenario prevailing in the country.
News From: http://www.7StarNews.com

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